Wood leads the charge for the English championship

Chris Wood and fellow Internationals Ed Richardson and Dale Whitnell are out in the first four groups over the Hotchkin Course on Monday the 28th and will be quickly followed by fellow caps Charlie Ford and Gary Wolstenholme and young talents Jonathan Bell and Tommy Fleetwood.

Wood, 20, from Bristol, who collected the silver medal as leading amateur at Royal Birkdale, is out first at 7.00am in the company of Richardson and James Martin from Spain.

Whitnell, winner of the Lagonda and Tillman Trophies in recent weeks, has a 7.30am start, Ford at 7.40am, Wolstenholme, yet to win the title, and Bell, the Sir Henry Cooper Junior Masters winner, at 7.50am and Fleetwood, the England Boys Captain, at 8.10am.

Simultaneously on the neighbouring Bracken Course, the 7.00am starters are Max Williams from Cuddington, Walsall s Joe Bland, and Nick Davis from The Hertfordshire.

England Schools champion and Somerset boy champion Matt Kippen has a 7.10am start along with Andrew Terry from Manchester and Sussex-based Daniel Casey.

A total of 288 leading players will descend on the EGU headquarters in rural Lincolnshire seeking to join a long and exclusive list of English champions.

The English Amateur adopted a change of format last year at Royal St George s which proved a winner with players and officials alike.

Instead of straight match play from the start, as had been the practise for many years, two rounds of stroke play qualifying, one over the Hotchkin Course and the other over the Bracken, will be staged over the opening two days.

From that, the leading 64 players and ties will go forward to the knockout stages over 18 holes on the Hotchkin.

Six days of quality golf is guaranteed with every member of the Elite and A Squads and most of the Under 21 and Under 18 Squads competing, thereby producing a line-up of internationals.

A total of 398 players filed entries with the cut-off coming at scratch, just 16 players off that handicap getting in, the rest being balloted out to a reserve list.

This will be the sixth time the Championship has been staged at Woodhall Spa. In 1967 Michael Bonallack was crowned champion followed by Mark James in 1974.

The 1984 winner was David Gilford, Ian Garbutt took the title there in 1990, while another Bristolian, Mark Sanders triumphed on the last occasion in 1999.

The Championship starts at 7am on Monday 28th July and culminates with the 36-hole final on Saturday 2nd August.

Latest scores and news updates can be found on the EGU website www.englishgolfunion.org.