| Hugo Townsend | |
| Fullname: | Hugo Austin Townsend |
| Birth Date: | 18 January 1999 |
| Birth Place: | Dublin, Ireland |
| Residence: | Boden, Sweden |
| College: | Boise State University University of Mississippi |
| Yearpro: | 2023 |
| Award1: | Mountain West Golfer of the Year |
| Year1: | 2021, 2022 |
Hugo Austin Townsend (born 18 January 1999) is a Swedish professional golfer. He earned co-medalist honors in stroke play at the 2021 U.S. Amateur and was runner-up at the 2022 European Amateur Team Championship.
Townsend was born in Dublin, Ireland. He grew up in Boden, Sweden where he moved at age 6 with his family, his Swedish mother Sofia and his English father Peter Townsend, a former PGA Tour golfer and two-time Ryder Cup player.[1]
Townsend showed a talent for golf early, winning 16 tournaments and recording 11 runner-up finishes on the regional junior circuits between 2012 and 2015, becoming the top ranked player in Sweden for his age group. He won the 2012 Skandia Cup national final by 18 strokes ahead of David Nyfjäll in second.
Townsend was a member of the Swedish National Team from 2016 to 2018, and helped lead the team to a fourth-place finish at the European Boys' Team Championship at La Manga Club, Spain in the summer of 2017. In the semi-final, he lost his Sunday singles match to Oliver Hundebøll on the 19th hole.[2]
He appeared in the European Amateur Team Championship twice. He helped the team earn a silver medal in 2022 at Royal St George's Golf Club, England. Sweden lost in the final against and Spain, despite Townsend and David Nyfjäll beating Spain's David Puig and J.L. Ballester, 1 up, in the first foursome game.[3] At the same venue, Townsend's father Peter had finished tied 19th in the Open Championship 41 years earlier.[4]
Townsend accepted a scholarship to Boise State University and played with the Boise State Broncos men's golf team from 2018 to 2022. He was named Mountain West Conference Golfer of the Year in 2021 and 2022, the first Bronco to earn the honor twice. In 2021, he won the Duck Invitational and was named All-American for the 2020–21 season. He was runner-up at the 2021 Mountain West Championship, after losing a playoff on the second hole.[5]
He earned co-medalist honors in stroke play and was the only European to reach the round of 16 at the 2021 U.S. Amateur, where he lost to Nick Gabrelcik on the 19th hole.[6] He represented the International team at the 2021 Arnold Palmer Cup held at Rich Harvest Farms in Illinois, where he tied his Sunday singles match with Sam Bennett.
Townsend enrolled at the University of Mississippi as a graduate student in 2022 and played with the Ole Miss Rebels men's golf team. He finished runner-up at the All-American Intercollegiate with an overall score of 210 (–6) to help his team win the tournament.[7] He was one of the top 25 golfers to be named by the foundation to the Haskins Award Watch List ahead of the 2022–23 season.[8]
Townsend played in the 2023 Volvo Car Scandinavian Mixed on the European Tour, a mixed event with men and women playing from different tees, where he finished 11th overall and 9th among the men, after a final round of eight under par 64 at Ullna G&CC outside Stockholm, Sweden.[9]
Townsend turned professional in June 2023, following the Volvo Car Scandinavian Mixed.[10] In his second start as a professional, he shot an eight under par second round of 64 to lead by a stroke at the half way point of the Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge in France.[11]
Amateur
Source:[12]