Hadden Hill clinch Junior Champion Club title by a whisker
The boys from Hadden Hill, Didcot were crowned English Junior
Champion Club after a nail-biting final afternoon at the National
Golf Centre in Woodhall Spa.
With the best two scores from three to count in each round,
Hadden Hill, representing Berks, Bucks and Oxon, finished
on 140 Stableford points, the same as Dorset representatives
Ferndown. But in the case of a tie the discounted cards are
taken into account and Hadden Hill got home with 59 points
to 54.
"We were quite confident coming into the event but we
didn’t think we could win," said 13-year-old Liam
Corrigan. "None of us have played in a national competition
before but we felt we could do well. Even though we were five
points behind going into the final round we knew that if we
could play to our potential we could pull it off."
The Didcot trio, whose combined age is 41 began the final
round in joint 11th place, five points behind the then leaders
from Cornwall, China Fleet. But with Daniel Walker amassing
38 points off 12 and both Corrigan (hcp 9) and Henry Morley
scoring 35, they managed to fight their way up the leader
board.
The Ferndown, Dorset team were early starters and posted
their score before many others had even teed off and set a
target that looked insurmountable to everyone except Hadden
Hill.
Local knowledge of the Bracken Course, where the championships
were played, enabled the Woodhall Spa team, representing Lincolnshire,
to finish third on 139, but again it needed a tiebreaker count
back to ease them past Fynn Valley who represented Suffolk.
The best return of the day came from Sam Glossop, a member
of the Chevin, Derbyshire team. The 18 year old, five handicapper,
scored a magnificent 42 points with a gross 71, one under
par.
Leading final scores:
140pts
Hadden Hill (BB&O) L Corrigan (24) 35, D Walker 32 38,
H Morley 35 (35); Ferndown (Dorset) J Coshan 35 (31), J Hooper
32 37, M Hector (23) 36
139pts
Woodhall Spa (Lincolnshire) R Harris 35 31, D Boyes 34 39,
N Stainfield (32) (31); Fynn Valley (Suffolk) J Abbott 36
31, A Bowen 35 (30), P Dobson (32) 37
138 pts
Letchworth (Hertfordshire) Miss S Moore (31) 35, C Moss 35
(32), D Banbury 36 32
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