Former international Jonathan Plaxton has been appointed England Captain and will take up his duties following the EGU’s Annual Meeting on 21st February.
Plaxton, 45, from York, will be at the helm for two years and succeeds Yorkshire-based Scot Cecil Bloice, who stepped down last autumn after four years as captain.
"It is a great honour to be asked to captain your country in the sport that I have always been passionate about," he says.
"When I was asked it came as a complete surprise. I hadn’t anticipated it and it had never crossed my mind that I might be given the opportunity. But I am delighted and looking forward to getting into the job."
His first time in charge is expected to be the international with Spain at Royal Ashdown Forest in Sussex on 12th and 13th May.
A former Yorkshire Youths, Amateur and Open champion, Plaxton has a distinguished amateur career. He took up golf at Scarborough North Cliff in 1970 aged nine and is accustomed to captaincy. He was in charge of England schoolboys in 1978 and was capped at all levels for the next seven years.
He was a full international for England between 1983 and ’85, winning 13 of his 23 matches. He also made 87 appearances for Yorkshire over a ten year period from 1978. He won the Carris Trophy (the English Boys Under 18 Championship) in 1978 and the Berkshire Trophy in 1984. He also qualified to play in the 1982 and ’83 Open Championships.
Off the course, Plaxton captained his club Fulford in 2003, is a director of the club and in 2006 was chairman of the Centenary Committee. He is currently captain and secretary of the Ex-England Internationals Golf Society.
Although born in Aylesbury, Bucks, Plaxton has lived in Yorkshire for almost 40 years and regards himself, like Bloice, as an adopted Yorkshireman. He is married to Debbie and has two sons Josh (11) and Ben (9).
He works as a senior relationship manager with Lombard, part of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group.
-ENDS-
For further information please contact:
Lynne Fraser, EGU Marketing and PR Manager
Email: lfraser@englishgolfunion.org
Tel: 01526 354500
EDITORS NOTES
The English Golf Union Limited (EGU) has served as the governing body of male amateur golf in England since it was founded in 1924.
Responsible for the training of England’s top amateur golfers the EGU organises all the major English amateur championships.
Based at the National Golf Centre in Woodhall Spa, the EGU is one of the largest sports governing bodies in England looking after the interests of over 1,900 golf clubs and 740,000 club members. The EGU also works to increase the continued interest and participation in golf through their golf development initiative ‘Get into Golf’ and their Associate Membership Programme.
The EGU is a founding member of The England Golf Partnership (EGP) along with the English Ladies Golf Association (ELGA) and the PGA and is supported by the Golf Foundation and Sport England. The Whole Sport Plan for golf identifies how the EGP will achieve its vision of becoming ‘The Leading Golf Nation in the World by 2020’ from grass roots right through to elite level.
Contact:
Lynne Fraser, EGU Marketing and PR Manager
Email: lfraser@englishgolfunion.org
Tel: 01526 354500
