Hunter golfer Dylan Perry has suffered a heart-breaking loss in the British Amateur match-play final after being four up with five holes to play.
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The 22-year-old almost had the title in his grasp and a spot in next month’s British Open and the 2018 US Masters and US Open.
But the pressure of the moment got to him and he took bogeys on the 14th, 16th, 17th and 18th to finish the 36-hole final all square with Englishman Harry Ellis.
The players went back to the first, where they both had pars, but Perry double-bogeyed the 38th hole to hand the trophy to Ellis.
Perry, who made the last 16 last year, had plenty to be proud of after reaching the final of one of the world’s most prestigious amateur tournaments.
“I’m pretty bummed, but at the end of the day you’ve got to take the positives out of the week,” he said after collecting his runners-up medal at Royal St George’s in Kent.
“I played well all day, and down the stretch that’s what pressure does to some people.
“It just wasn’t meant to be, but congratulations to Harry. He played well down the stretch so good on him.”
Perry never trailed in his semi-final against Argentina’s Alejandro Tosti to win 3&2 and become the first Australian to reach the final since 2011 winner Bryden Macpherson.
Perry, whose home club is The Vintage, had won his previous three match-play contests by a single hole.
He made two birdies and three bogeys in the first 18 against Ellis as the two finished the morning session all square. Neither play was more than a single hole up.
But Perry, who was born in Aberdeen and moved to the Gold Coast in January, surged ahead in the afternoon, picking up four holes between the fifth and ninth.
He held that advantage until the 14th, but Ellis closed with five straight pars to send the final into extra holes.
Ellis, 21, who plays at Florida State university, dedicated his victory to his mother, who died of cancer in 2013 at the age of 50.
“After what I’ve been through off the golf course, to overcome that today was slightly easier,” he said.
“I never gave up. I never thought I was out of it.
“I knew how hard it would be for Dylan. He was the better player over the course of that match because he made fewer mistakes than I did.
“He was deservedly in front and it’s tough on him what happened over the last few holes.”
Ellis won the English Amateur in 2012 at the age of 16.
