The Open at Royal St George’s is now looming on the horizon for the St Andrews-based 23-year-old, who is a graduate of Stirling University. Shepherd will certainly savour that experience, and the other major moments that are set to come his way over the next 12 months.
“It’s never nice as an athlete when you feel like you are going backwards, like I was,” reflected Shepherd of that period of painful toil and trouble earlier this year. “So it (The Open) is just going to be really special. It’s the closest one to my home address in Sussex in terms of The Open venues. I went there as a kid watching Opens. And whatever happens in the events I’m now going to play, nobody can take that experience away from me.”
Shepherd’s Amateur Championship final experience, meanwhile, had been a fairly ghastly one as he fell eight holes behind but he managed to win the final hole of the morning’s round to give himself something to cling to.
Shepherd is probably still pinching himself as he contemplates playing not only The Open, but also next year’s U.S. Open and, by tradition, the 2022 Masters at Augusta National.
The British Amateur Championship is run by the R&A, and its official title is simply The Amateur Championship. Many golfers (mostly in the United States) call it the British Amateur to distinguish it from the U.S. Amateur.
