Silver Medal winner Alfie Plant revealed he plans to turn professional after the Walker Cup in September, as he completed a memorable week at Royal Birkdale to rapturous applause on the 18th hole.

Awarded to the Open’s lowest-scoring amateur, the Silver Medal has been handed to the likes of Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy in the past, while other recipients drifted into obscurity.

Plant, from Sundridge Park Golf club in Kent, was the only amateur to make the halfway cut at Birkdale and will be handed his prize on the 18th green on Sunday evening as part of the traditional ceremony.

The 25-year-old from Bexleyheath said: “I’ll be turning pro in September. Hopefully going to be picked for Walker Cup in September and try out for tour school after that.”

The Walker Cup is the amateur version of the Ryder Cup, while ‘tour school’ is a famously brutal process as approximately 1,000 golfers compete for 25 or so places on the European Tour.

Plant is a relatively late developer, but argues the experience he has accumulated around the amateur circuit will hold him in good stead as he tries to make the grade.

Attention will now turn to matters of management, finance and marketing, and numerous pitfalls await the naïve and inspecting young player. Plant said this was one of the areas he quizzed his playing partners on during the Open.

“Yeah, there’s probably a lot of discussions that need to be done now with management companies and regarding the business side,” said Plant. “The brand, Team Alfie, whoever I sign with, hopefully they got a good marketing team and they can sort me out. But I feel like I’m something different out there. I’m quite relaxed. Don’t mind having a laugh and a joke.”

Plant has been supported throughout the week by a contingent of 150 family and friends, decked out in ‘Team Alfie’ T-shirts and caps arranged by his father Darren.

Younger brother Albert caddied for Plant at the Open, though might find himself out of a job with his elder brother on the lookout for a full-time caddie.

“We have been staying in Formby,” Plant said. “It started out with three of us at the start of the week and ended up with 15 of us in there. So all the sofas are being taken. The beds were getting blown up.”

Were he a professional, Plant would be on his way to the bank to cash a cheque for around £20,000 at the Open, but because of his amateur status he did not receive a penny in prize money. What might he have spent the money on?

Plant joked: “If you ask my girlfriend, she’d definitely say a ring. I’m really not sure. Some new clothes would be nice or a nice holiday.”