English Men’s Amateur Championship: Bishop’s Stortford golfer Max Hopkins beats Jake Hibbert in quarter-final and Milan Reed in semi-final to reach Sunday’s 36-hole final against Henry Styles
Max Hopkins will contest Sunday’s final of the men’s English Amateur Championship after winning his quarter- and semi-final matches on Saturday (August 2).
The 22-year-old Bishop’s Stortford Golf Club member will take on Romford’s Henry Styles in the 36-hole climax to the centenary championship at the world-famous Royal Liverpool Golf Club at Hoylake, which has hosted the Open Championship 13 times.
He will be looking to emulate previous champions that include superstars Tommy Fleetwood, Danny Willett, Paul Casey (twice) and Nick Faldo, while Matt Fitzpatrick was a runner-up in 2013.
Hopkins, who works shifts behind the bar at The Star in Bridge Street, will go into the final full of confidence. Just five days ago he equalled the links course’s record of 63 set by Masters and US Open winner Jon Rahm when the Spaniard finished tied second behind the USA’s Brian Harman at the 2023 Open.
And he could have gone on to match or even better that score had his semi-final this afternoon gone the full distance – for he was eight under par when the contest finished with three holes left to play, including the par five 16th.
In Saturday morning’s quarter-final match, the Stortford golfer beat Jake Hibbert, of Warrington, 1 up in the only one of the four quarter-finals that went to the last hole.
Then, in his semi, he was an eventually comfortable 5&3 winner over Milan Reed, of Long Ashton, coming from 2 down after four holes.
After the pair had matching par fours on the first two holes, Hopkins fell behind, despite a birdie on the par five third, as Reed eagled it and then birdied the par three fourth.
But Hopkins levelled the match with birdies on the short 7th and long 8th as both players reached the turn in 33, three under par.
And then the former Hockerill Anglo-European College and Leventhorpe School student blitzed the back nine, with an eagle and three birdies in four holes from the 11th as Reed could do no better than par them all.
He sealed victory with a par three on the 15th as his Bristol opponent double-bogeyed, his only dropped shots of the round.
It was another bogey-free round for Hopkins after his 12 birdies and an eagle over the two rounds that formed the opening stroke play element of the championship on Tuesday and Wednesday (July 29-30).
His score of 14 under meant he was top seed going into Thursday’s matchplay section, where he won 2&1 against Colchester’s Ollie Baker in their last-64 encounter.
On Friday, after a smooth 7&6 last-32 win over Cookridge Hall’s Alfie Storer in the morning, Hopkins lost three holes on the bounce during the back nine to Monty Holcombe, of Walton Heath, before rescuing a win on the 18th in their afternoon last-16 contest.