Curtis Knipes

The English amateur’s rookie MENA Tour campaign has him rethinking his pro plans

- Kent Gray

A BIT LIKE HIS IMPRESSIVELY TIDY GAME, Curtis Knipes doesn’t give too much away. Asked to divulge something even his mates don’t know about him, the 18-year-old Englishman is stumped. - “To be honest, I don’t know. I’m quite an open person and haven’t got any secrets.” - Nor any quirky golf superstitions it seems, unless of course you count the fact he lines up putts so that the brand name on his ball is the right way round to ensure it’s readable. “But I think that’s just personal preference.” - It’s just as difficult to get a read on the Essex teen during the heat of a tournament round. Let’s just say he’s less your poker-faced Dustin Johnson, more your Hideki ‘who knows what hand the Japanese star is playing from one shot to the next’ Matsuyama type. In fact, Knipes’ pals rib him for it. - “I’d say my biggest strength is my misses, which sounds strange,” he says. “I hit it pretty straight and haven’t really got a big miss in me. It keeps me out of trouble most of the time and helps me keep the big numbers offof the card. My mates call me Hideki Matsuyama sometimes because I tend to hate shots I don’t think I hit well, but they’re never that bad.”

It’s a nice problem to have. Indeed, it’s taken the Chelmsford Golf Club-attached, +3.2 handicapper into the MENA Tour’s summer break at the summit of the amateur order of merit, more than 1600 points ahead of Josh Hill, his Dubai-domiciled England International team-mate.