Fife golfers Calum Hill and Connor Syme miss cut at Husqvarna British Masters as Englishman prevails
Fife golf stars Calum Hill and Connor Syme both failed to qualify for the weekend at the DP World Tour’s latest stop, the Husqvarna British Masters hosted by Sir Nick Faldo which finished on Sunday.
Playing at the world famous Brabazon course at The Belfry in Sutton Coldfield, England – which hosted the Ryder Cup in 1985, 1989, 1993 and 2002 – Hill posted efforts of 75 and 70 in his first two rounds while it was efforts of 75 and 73 for Syme.
This meant that 31-year-old Hill missed the halfway cut by two strokes, while Syme, also 31, was five shots back from making it.
Of the 71 golfers who did qualify for the weekend, an intriguing battle developed with several stars in contention to land the top prize of €510,934.24 and take the lead in the new European Ryder Cup points list which has just started for the Europe v USA event’s 46th staging at Adare Manor, Ireland, in September 2027.
Although big hitting Englishman Marco Penge was the bookies’ favourite to win after opening with rounds of 69 and 65, it was a lesser-known countryman of his who prevailed after coming from well off the pace at halfway to surge through the field and emerge victorious.
England’s Joe Dean was the man in question, starting with rounds of 67 and 73 before backing this up superbly with weekend efforts of 71 and a sparkling final round 63 to finish on 274 (-14).
This gave Dean, 32, a three-shot success from four men tied for second place – Spain’s Nacho Elvira, Danish golfers Niklas Norgaard and Jacob Skov Olesen and Daniel Hillier of New Zealand.
Dean, who as recently as two years ago was driving supermarket delivery trucks just to fund his golf career, said after his win: “All those painful hours and all the work I put in, it's finally led to something, so I’m happy.
"I enjoyed it (supermarket delivery truck job) for most of the time but obviously it was a completely different life.”
The DP World Tour’s next stop is this week’s Omega European Masters at Crans-sur-Sierre Golf Club, Crans Montana, Switzerland, for which both Hill and Syme are entered.
Hill goes in sitting 21st in the Race to Dubai standings, having gone down four places after missing the cut in England, while Syme is down one position to 165th spot.