Charles Overcomes Nerves to Book Quarter-Final Spot

Manchester, England: Australian Max Charles overcame early nerves to book his place in the quarter-finals of The 127th Amateur Championship at Royal Lytham & St Annes.

With New Zealander James Hydes bowing out to Irishman Peter O’Keeffe in the third round, Charles, who plays college golf for Boise State University in Idaho, is the last survivor from the Asia-Pacific region.

Charles progressed by edging out Englishman William Hopkins by one hole in the third round on Thursday morning, and then defeating Caolan Rafferty from Ireland 4 & 3 in the afternoon Round of 16 clash.

In the last eight on Friday morning, Charles will take on another Irishman, Alex Maguire. The winner of that match will square off against either Germany’s Laurenz Schiergen or South African Aldrich Potgieter in the afternoon semi-final.

In the quarter-finals in the top half of the draw, England’s Sam Bairstow faces Swede Ludvig Aberg, number three in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, while O’Keeffe battles against England’s John Gough.

Such was Charles’ focus as he headed into his Round of 16 contest that he was unaware of the fact that Rafferty had represented Great Britain and Ireland in the Walker Cup against the United States.

“I’m glad I didn’t know that before I played him,” said Charles, a member at Kingston Heath Golf Club who is bidding to become the first Australian to win the Amateur Championship since Bryden Macpherson in 2011.

“My game is in a good spot at the moment. All I can do is keep trusting it. Pretty happy with how it’s going,” added Charles, acknowledging that he had a nervy start to the day.

He said: “I was a bit nervous going into it but the game fell into place and it was fun out there. There was no wind, so the course played a bit different to the past week. I played solid and managed to get two wins.

“I guess match play, you don’t really know what’s going to happen. It’s just whoever is good on the day really. It’s completely different to stroke play. All you can do is take it one hole at a time … and that’s what I did.”

The R&A will provide live broadcast coverage of the quarter-finals and semi-finals and the 36-hole Final on Saturday. This can be watched on The R&A’s website as well as its YouTube channel.