Beckmann set to defend Federal Amateur

BY Anthony Powter | Australian Mens Amateur Tour | 2008 Federal Amateur Open Championship | Preview | 29 Sep 2008

Daniel Beckmann is set to defend his Federal Amateur Championship starting this Friday at the Federal Golf Club in Canberra. Last year Beckmann secured his first major amateur championship following a four round total of 6-under-par, to finish four strokes ahead of Englishman, Dale Whitnell.

The four-round stroke tournament is considered the “opening” Australian amateur event of the season and this year will boast a strong field spearheaded by Australia’s top ranked player and world number five, Matthew Griffin.

Griffin is the only player of the three-man Australian Eisenhower Team to use the event as a warm-up. Tim Stewart and Rohan Blizard, the other two members of the Australian team, have elected to sit the week out and rest for the World Championships, which start in Adelaide on 15 October.

Other notables playing this year’s Federal Amateur include Matt Jager, who is coming off a stellar US tour with three top-ten finishes, including a runner-up place at the prestigious Players Amateur, Jason Scrivener who also played well in the US, the 2007 Rice Planters winner and 2008 Australian Amateur runner-up Michael Foster, Scott Arnold, Grant Scott, as well as Michael Raseta and Ryan McCarthy, who were undefeated in the recent Interstate Series at Monash Golf Club.

The internationals attending the Federal Amateur this year include England’s Andrew Sullivan, a semi-finalist at the 2008 British Amateur and France’s Victor Dubuisson, winner of the 2008 Mexican Amateur and a 3rd place finisher in the Western Amateur back in August.

The Federal Amateur was first staged in 1951, achieving Vardon status in the 1970’s and later approved as a National Selection Trial event for Australian amateur teams in 2004. Previous recent winners include current PGA Tour player Nick Flanagan (2003), Asian Tour player Gavin Flint (2004), Andrew Martin (2005) and a recent winner on the Asian Tour, Rick Kulacz (2006).

Beckmann has been relatively quite lately and with a world ranking slipping to around 190, he’ll be keen to make his move this summer back in Australia after a rather disappointing maiden US amateur tour, where his best result was a T36 at the Rice Planters Invitational. Beckmann was a member of the winning Victorian Men’s Interstate team earlier in the month, where he won three, squared one and lost one in his singles matches.

Back in 2006 the Federal Amateur was the kick-start Rick Kulacz needed, as he went on to win the NSW Open the next month in dynamic fashion to become the first amateur in over 30 years to win the title. He then added to his ever expanding resume with wins in the Dunes Medal and the SAGA Invitational. All victories after he broke through at the Federal Amateur.

With professional announcements pending with a number of our main amateurs, the emerging young guns will be looking to remind the Australian selectors that although the Eisenhower Cup team has been determined, they should not be discounted in the future.

For Beckmann his objective this week will be to make it two in a row and like Kulacz in 2006, kick-start his season and regain some form that had him burst onto the major amateur scene twelve months ago.