FRESH off helping England defeat France in an international match last weekend, Lindrick’s Tom Osborne tees off alongside 143 of the world’s best amateurs in the Brabazon Trophy at Moortown on Thursday, hoping to continue a journey he hopes culminates at the Walker Cup later this year.

The 24-year-old from South Yorkshire is eyeing the professional ranks at the end of the season but not before he has tried to finish his amateur career with a flourish.

Earlier this season he won the Spanish Amateur Championship at El Rey, then in Chantilly last week he was part of an England team that beat hosts France.

On Thursday he begins his bid for one of the most prestigious amateur titles in the game, the Brabazon Trophy, just an hour and a bit up the road from his home.

In the swing: Lindrick amateur Tom Osborne is part of the Yorkshire challenge at this week’s Brabazon Trophy at Moortown.

placeholder image — In the swing: Lindrick amateur Tom Osborne is part of the Yorkshire challenge at this week’s Brabazon Trophy at Moortown.

And with good results this week and across the summer he could earn selection for the Great Britain and Ireland squad for the Walker Cup match with the United States at Lahinch, Ireland, in early September.

“Because I was so close to it last year and this year it’s a very realistic goal, but this is the final shot for me,” said Osborne, a regular in the Yorkshire counties team.

“Otherwise it would just be another two years of waiting for it and I just want to turn pro. I’ll play the amateur comps this summer and then go for it, either through DP World Tour qualifying school or the global amateur pathway.”

His victory in Spain in March sets him up perfectly for this most crucial of years.

Golfers Tom Osborne and John Parry go on their round for the third instalment of the 2020protour match at the iconic Ganton Golf Club near Scarborough. (Picture:Tony Johnson)

“You take a lot of confidence from a win like that and it feels like you can kick on for the rest of the year,” said Osborne, who spent five years living in Australia before returning to South Yorkshire and taking up membership at Lindrick.

“I’ve surrounded myself with some good people at Lindrick and have kicked on from there.

“Then once I got into the Yorkshire scene, then England, then Great Britain and Ireland, you’re around people that can elevate your career.”

Yorkshire has a fine tradition in the Brabazon, England’s open amateur strokeplay championship, producing four winners in the last two decades. Hornsea’s Steve Uzzell won it back in 2008 before a flurry from 2018 saw three champions crowned in four years; Rotherham’s Nick Poppleton at Frilford Heath, Barnsley’s Ben Schmidt at Alwoodley in Leeds and then Sheffield’s Sam Bairstow at Ganton outside Scarborough. The latter two now ply their trade on the DP World Tour.

Moortown Golf Club hosts the Brabazon Trophy for a sixth time this week.

Among the local lads hoping to outlast an international field over 72 holes of strokeplay from Thursday to Sunday are Osborne’s England team-mate Jake Sowden (The Oaks) who begins his first round at 9.20am, Dylan Shaw-Radford (Huddersfield, 9.50am), Charlie Daughtry (Rotherham, 10.40), and Oliver Cage (Moortown, 1.40pm). Osborne is out at 8.20am. The first tee times are 7am with the last at 3.30pm.

This is the sixth time Moortown – which in 2029 celebrates the centenary of hosting the first Ryder Cup on UK soil – has staged the Brabazon.

Moortown secretary Peter Rishworth said: “It’s about as good as it gets for amateur golf and is exciting for the club.

“It’s not directly a money-spinner, or a big financial gain, it’s more the prestige and the ability to support amateur golf, plus the coverage you get from people seeing the course, getting new eyes on us from England and around the world. With people travelling from all around the world to play in it, it keeps Moortown in the golfing mind’s eye.”