And yesterday Seve Ballesteros retired from the tournament after eight holes, complaining of a bad back and an inflamed hip. He had begun with a triple-bogey seven after hooking his drive out of bounds.Matthews, who is reckoned to earn more than £8m a month in interest on his fortune, said that next year the Wales Open would have a better date and that the prize money of £750,000, would be increased. If a problem can be solved by throwing money at it, Matthews is not short of ammunition.. Zane Scotland is not England’s sole hope of victory at the Amateur Championship but on a day of upsets at Royal Liverpool the 17-year-old survived to the last eight. While Brad Lamb and Raul Ballesteros departed at lunchtime, Scotland won a lengthy match against Middlesborough’s Jonathan Lupton at the 20th. It took almost five hours and, on the verge of victory with an eight-foot birdie putt on the second green, Scotland had to back off when there was a rowdy shout from a passing car. After composing himself, the Surrey teenager calmly holed the putt.

Zane Scotland is not England’s sole hope of victory at the Amateur Championship but on a day of upsets at Royal Liverpool the 17-year-old survived to the last eight. While Brad Lamb and Raul Ballesteros departed at lunchtime, Scotland won a lengthy match against Middlesborough’s Jonathan Lupton at the 20th. It took almost five hours and, on the verge of victory with an eight-foot birdie putt on the second green, Scotland had to back off when there was a rowdy shout from a passing car. After composing himself, the Surrey teenager calmly holed the putt.
His reward was a bite of a sandwich and then a match against Craig Watson, the 1997 Amateur champion. It took him a while to get into the match but his curling 30-footer at the last was his sixth birdie and sealed a one-up victory. Since becoming one of the youngest players to qualify for the Open last year, he has won the McEvoy Trophy and made his England debut this season.With plenty of scope for someone to make a name for themselves, David Ryles, England’s other remaining representative, made a decent fist of it. It was the 20-year-old from West Hill in Surrey who disposed of Lamb with a 7 and 6 victory.

Lamb never came to terms with a blustery wind as well as his opponent, who was unaware of the former’s status as the Australian Amateur champion and winner of the Victorian Open on the Australasian Tour in January.On his first appearance at the Amateur his intention has been just to have fun. “I’ll keep hitting golf balls until someone tells me to stop,” Ryles said.In the afternoon’s fourth round, he was three ahead at one stage, but went one behind at the 17th against Clevedon’s John Morgan. Ryles pushed his tee shot into the rough but played a fine recovery with a six-iron which finished pin-high on the left fringe. From 30 feet, and with a yard of break from the left, he curled in the putt “I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “I’ve never done anything like that when it had to happen in a big competition like this.”Morgan, recently capped by England for the first time, missed his birdie putt and they moved over to the first tee. The opening hole doglegs to the right around the practice range, which is out of bounds. Again Ryles pushed his tee shot, the ball finishing in the rough just in front of the bank at the elbow of the dogleg.After Morgan missed the green on the left, the natural reaction might have been to lay up safely.