{"id":683275,"date":"2026-07-10T00:01:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T00:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/683275\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T00:01:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T00:01:15","slug":"pressure-off-for-bradford-open-winner-in-thrilling-finish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/683275\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Pressure off’ for Bradford Open winner in thrilling finish"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n The 19-year-old reflected on Sunday\u2019s remarkable comeback victory at Shipley Golf Club when speaking to the T&A.\n<\/p>\n

\n The Ilkley Golf Club ace said: \u201cIt\u2019s good, I\u2019m happy to have retained my title, especially with the way I did it, shooting low on the back nine.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cLike I said last year, it\u2019s always nice the Bradford Open, because it\u2019s the tournament where you get to see the guys you play against all the time.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n Reflecting on that back nine, where he shot just 29, Cunningham said: \u201cI was playing well all day, hitting the ball nicely.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe putts just weren\u2019t dropping but I told myself to stay patient.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt was just a case of playing the same golf, keep hitting my fairways and greens.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThen all of a sudden, on the back nine, pretty much every putt went in, so I just got rewarded in the end for trying to grind it out.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n Silsden native Cunningham hit the front late on, poor Oliver Young ahead for the majority of the tournament, only to fall one stroke short of victory.\n<\/p>\n

\n But the teen has been there himself, leading at the halfway stage of the 2024 Bradford Open before fading away<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\n Cunningham said: \u201cIt\u2019s one of those things.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re leading, all the pressure is on you, because you\u2019re expected to go on and win the tournament.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cOllie had a four-shot lead with nine holes to go, but if you\u2019re the one chasing like I was, you\u2019ve got no pressure on you.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cYou just keep playing how you have been and if you make birdies, great, but if you don\u2019t, you don\u2019t.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cBut as the frontman, as soon as you start dropping shots, the pressure builds.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThere were back-to-back holes with two shot swings on 14 and 15 that helped in my favour.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cBut Ollie played great and it was nice to just play with him and battle against him.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n Shipley captain Jamie Cunningham (left) and vice-skipper Steve Hodgson pose proudly with Huey Cunningham after his win on their course. (Image: UGC)\n<\/p>\n

\n Retaining his title at Shipley on Sunday made up for his failed attempt to qualify for The Open at Royal Birkdale next week.\n<\/p>\n

\n Cunningham said: \u201cI tried at Fulford, but it didn\u2019t go as planned.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI\u2019ve missed out this year, but I\u2019ll definitely try again in 2027, where I think qualifying will be at Alwoodley.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cEither way, I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll be going back to Fulford, I\u2019ll try somewhere different.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n And very soon, the 19-year-old will be expanding his horizons, as one of three Ilkley Golf Club talents to be offered a scholarship in America<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\n Cunningham will be going to Eckerd College in Florida next month, and he told us: \u201cI can\u2019t wait.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThat\u2019s a four-year thing, so you go August to December, come home from Christmas, then back out from January to May.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThat\u2019s when our summer starts with the Bradford Union, so I\u2019ll be back here to play in our golf competitions.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe weather and facilities over in Florida will be amazing, so I\u2019m looking forward to going there definitely.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 19-year-old reflected on Sunday\u2019s remarkable comeback victory at Shipley Golf Club when speaking to the T&A. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":683276,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-683275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=683275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/683276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=683275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=683275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=683275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}