by Amanda Little

Last updated at 17:01, Friday, 10 August 2012

Cumbrian golf star Seb Crookall-Nixon is set to follow in the footsteps of world number one Luke Donald by taking up a golf scholarship in America.

Seb Crookall-Nixon

The 18-year-old county player will quit Cumbria this month to further his golf career at San Francisco University.

Donald and fellow Ryder Cup star Paul Casey are among the golfers who have gone on to stardom after playing on the American college circuit.

Crookall-Nixon will combine playing golf with studying for a degree in international business.

His decision to move to the States comes after he was handed his first England call-up for the Home Internationals at Glasgow Gailes Golf Club on August 15-17.

It is reward for reaching the quarter-final of the English Amateur championship at Silloth on Solway and Seascale, where he was defeated by eventual champion Harry Ellis.

His memorable summer comes just 13 weeks after the teenager, from Papcastle, near Cockermouth, feared he was going to die during a horrific road accident on the outskirts of Carlisle.

Crookall-Nixon escaped with a broken collarbone and wrist plus whiplash following the crash, which happened just over a year after his cousin, rugby star James Tincknell, was nearly killed in an accident on the A66.

“Everything is happening very quickly and I think going to America is the right decision,” he said.

“Anybody at the top of the world rankings has probably been in the USA scholarship programme.

“When I went out and had a look it was fantastic and I’ve just got to hope the golf will deliver.”

Crookall-Nixon, who plays at Workington Golf Club, is one of five new England caps who will defend the Raymond Trophy, along with Harry Ellis (Meon Valley, Hampshire), Nathan Kimsey (Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire), Jamie Rutherford (Knebworth, Hertfordshire) and Jordan Smith (Bowood G&CC, Wiltshire).

The English under-16 champion in 2008 and 2009, he was also an under-16 cap and finished fourth in last year’s Brabazon Trophy.

He hopes playing for England will help make up for missing out on his dream of winning the English Amateur Championship.

“The England selection is a bit unexpected but I was playing very good golf and my main focus was winning the English Amateur Championship,” he said.

“I thought winning it was set in the stars for me.

“But to reach the last eight so soon after the accident when I thought I was going to die is just incredible.

“If someone had said to me five minutes after the accident when I was in so much pain that I would be selected for the Home Internationals, I wouldn’t have thought it would be possible.

“I have a habit of surprising myself and the England selectors have seen potential in how I’ve been playing, and have rewarded me for my hard work in getting back.

“I was told the selection was based on how well I was doing before the accident and how well I have come back from it.”

First published at 14:07, Friday, 10 August 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk