There is a world of difference between strokeplay and matchplay golf, between taking on the field and battling mano-a-mano. Sam Hutsby can attest to that. The 19-year-old from Liphook, Hampshire, was the only player under par when the two qualifying rounds of the Amateur Championship concluded in a downpour on Tuesday but he found the matchplay format much harder and lost his first-round match yesterday by three and two.

His conqueror was T. J. Bordeaux, an American college golfer from Tacoma, Washington, who had not previously left his continent. “I’ve been to Canada and Mexico, but I don’t think I’ve ever been too far from the West Coast,” he said. “This course is a lot different to what we get back home.”

Bordeaux had struggled to a 78 in the second strokeplay round but owed his place as the 64th qualifier for the matchplay to some nerveless putting, holing twice from 20 feet on Tuesday and getting up and down from 40 yards at the last. His short game helped him again yesterday and he moved three up after 11 with a ten-foot downhill putt, going on to secure the win with his first birdie of the day at the 16th.

Hutsby thus became the eighth No 1 seed in the past decade to lose in the first round of matchplay at the Amateur. “I made too many mistakes early and my putting let me down,” he said.

Jorge Campillo, the world No 5 from Spain, almost had to make the same excuse after being taken down the 18th by Steven Uzzell. Campillo missed putts from four and two feet on the 7th and 9th holes that would have made him three up at the turn, rather than one. A further miss from eight feet at the 10th brought forth a ripe Hispanic expletive and he had to rely on Uzzell, from Yorkshire, driving into bunkers at the 13th and 14th to take a three-hole lead.

Again he failed to turn the screw, missing from four feet for a half at the 15th and making a mess of the 16th when he drove into a bush, hit his third into the rough and found the burn in front of the green with his fourth. Uzzell held his nerve with an eight-foot putt on 17 to take the match down the last, but finally Campillo’s short game came good as he laid an approach putt from 40 feet close enough for Uzzell to concede.