Billy Dowling and his caddie plot their manner across the course through the Open Novice Championship at Royal St Georges.
WHEN Billy Dowling inevitably turns skilled, maybe inside the subsequent few months, he’ll accomplish that on the again of an novice profession as spectacular as any we’ve seen in recent times.
Dowling has been making individuals sit up and take discover since 2021 when, on the age of 15 and together with his 13-year-old mate Alfie Ward lugging his golf equipment, he shot rounds of 72 and 73 to overlook the lower within the Queensland Open by only a stroke.
Now 20, he’s simply accomplished what has develop into an annual marketing campaign in the UK, the place he carried out with distinction towards a number of the finest gamers on the earth – novice {and professional}.
He completed fifth of 144 within the English Males’s Open Novice Championship, then was runner-up to England’s Eliot Baker within the Scottish Males ‘s Open Championship at North Berwick.
He led that occasion on the half-way mark, after capturing rounds of 64 and 67, modestly confirming that he’d performed properly and would have been proud of any rating underneath par.
A fortnight later he reached the quarter-finals of the British Novice Championship, competing towards the world’s finest novice golfers at Britain’s Royal St Georges Golf Membership.
“If I may come away happy from that event, happy with my efforts and happy with my rating, then that was all I may actually ask,” stated Dowling, who was searching for to develop into the primary Australian to win the occasion since Bryden Macpherson in 2011.
He adopted up by having a crack on the Open, taking his place in a subject of hopefuls at West Lancashire. He shot 67 within the first spherical of the 36-hole qualifier to take the lead earlier than falling away with a 74 within the second spherical.
Even so he was solely two strokes from qualifying, and 5 behind the winner, fellow Australian Lucas Herbert.
Earlier than returning to Australia, Dowling visited america, the place his most important goal was the US Novice Championship on the Olympic Membership in San Francisco from August 11 to 17.
He acquired into the occasion, which has been gained up to now by such legends as Bobby Jones, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Tiger Woods, by capturing 70 at a qualifier in Orlando, Florida, in mid-July. Sydney’s Coby Carruthers gained the occasion with a 65.
After that, Dowling warmed up for the US Novice by ending thirteenth within the Pacific Coast Novice, at Eugene Nation Membership, Oregon, capturing rounds of 72, 71, 72 and 71.
“I wished to go over and play these worldwide occasions and really contend a bit bit extra. I haven’t performed an excessive amount of within the US, in order that’ll be a brand new expertise and I’m certain I’ll take pleasure in that.”
Dowling, who has been coached since he was 5 by Canadian-born Nancy Harvey at Royal Pines, has been taking part in off scratch since he was 13. Two years in the past, he shot 59 to set a course file at his house observe at Surfers Paradise, a efficiency that noticed his handicap drop to an eye-watering plus 6.3.
Not that he worries an excessive amount of about his handicap. He has greater targets.
He completed fourth within the Riversdale Cup in March – his first outing because the Australian Novice in January when, after the primary spherical, he was rushed to hospital for an emergency appendix operation.
Then he took on the professionals within the Nationwide Match at Gunnamatta, on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, the place he discovered himself within the lead after two rounds of 66. He closed with 72 and 69 to complete sixth.
Difficult himself towards skilled golfers is nothing new for Dowling, who final yr completed prime 10 in successive skilled tournaments – the Webex Gamers Collection Adelaide in late October and the Queensland PGA at Nudgee the next week.
Earlier wins for the person ranked Australia’s main novice final yr included the 2023 Queensland Novice, the 2023 Keperra Bowl, 2023 South Pacific Junior Open, 2023 Gary Participant Traditional, the 2024 South Australian Novice and the 2024 Pacific Harbour Novice.
He’s reluctant to invest when he may flip skilled, however there’s little left in novice golf for a younger man who’s already proved he’s aggressive towards the hardest opposition.
The submit Aussie novice champ reveals the world what he can do first appeared on Inside Golf. Australia’s Most-Learn Golf Journal as named by Australian Golfers – FREE.
