Boote Makes Big Impression For Wales in Mexico

Welsh golfer David Boote earned a top 10 finish at the World Amateur Team Championships, lifting his Wales team into 16th place in the event won by Australia.

US Amateur quarter-finalist Boote finished strongly with rounds of 68 and 67 over the weekend to lift himself to 9th among the world’s top amateur golfers, with an overall score of nine under at the Eisenhower Trophy held in Mexico.

His score was crucial every day to the Wales team, with the two best scores out of three counting, while Owen Edwards of Llanwern and Celtic Manor’s Josh Davies each counted on two days out of the four with a team total of eight under.

Boote becomes only the second Wales golfer to finish in the top 10 in the world championships, following Nigel Edwards in 2004 and 2006 when he helped steer Wales to seventh and fourth alongside European Tour player Rhys Davies.

The event this year was won by runaway leaders Australia, who also contributed the top two individual players, with England in second place.

“Congratulations to David, it was a strong individual performance as his score counted each day and he led the team to a respectable finish amongst the world’s best amateurs.” said Golf Union of Wales chief executive Richard Dixon.

“He has had an outstanding season reaching the quarter-finals of the US Amateur, the first time a Welsh player has done that, and also playing leading roles in the Palmer Cup and St Andrew’s Trophy teams for Europe and Great Britain and Ireland.”

Boote has just finished his degree at Stanford University, where Tiger Woods also studied, and is planning to enter European Tour qualifying as an amateur but has also not ruled out next year’s Walker Cup as a target.