Last year’s Reid Trophy winner French teenager Joseph Linel – the 2020 English U14s Championship has been cancelled. Picture by LEADERBOARD PHOTOGRAPHY
THE Reid and McGregor Trophy will not take place in 2020 – because of the continuing COVID-19 crisis, England Golf has announced.
England Golf believes the English U14 and U16 championships – due to be held in the last week of July and early August – pose to many obstacles to overcome for them to go ahead.
The England Girls U16 and U14 Championships – which were due to be held at Brentwood’s Thorndon Park Golf Club, in Esssex – have also been called off.
An England Golf spokesman said: “The safety and wellbeing of our junior competitors and their accompanying parents/guardians remains of paramount importance.
“While we are confident the golf element of a championship can be managed successfully, there are additional practical difficulties associated with running junior events.
“With parents and guardians necessarily joining competitors, staff and volunteers on site within the confines of a smaller club environment, it becomes more difficult to adhere to social distancing regulations.”
A spokesman said: “England Golf is most appreciative of the understanding and acceptance shown by the host clubs in making this tough decision.
“We look forward to working with them again in the future.”
England Golf is confident the Men’s and Women’s national championship can still go ahead at its national headquarters at Woodhall Spa, in Lincolnshire, at the end of July.
The spokesman added: “It should be noted that due to the size and layout of the Woodhall Spa facility at the home of England Golf, the English Men’s and English Women’s Amateur Championships – scheduled to be played from July 28-August 2 – remain in the diary.
“England Golf is confident it can celebrate the best of English amateur golf at this joint event.”
French teenager Joseph Linel – the 2019 winner – will have to wait a year longer to stand a chance of joining the elite group to have won the Reid and McGregor Trophy.
Justin Rose won the McGregor and Carris trophies in 1995
Carris and other events ‘unaffected’ at the moment says England Golf
ALL other England Golf championships remain provisionally scheduled as before – but are subject to regular review in accordance with updated government advice and regulations, England Golf has confirmed.
The biggest junior event is the Carris Trophy, which was moved to the end of August, from the third week in July, becasue of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The English Seniors Men’s and Women Amateur Championships have also been rescheduled to the middle of August.
The McGregor has been won by the likes of Justin Rose, back in 1995, and Edoardo Molinari, a year later.
The Italian denied a back-to-back victory for the North Hants GC teenager – a feat only achieved by Lincolnshire’s Jim Payne, in 1987.
It was one of three national victories in one stunning season for Rose, who only turned 15 after he had completed the double by adding the Carris Trophy at the English Boys Amateur Championship, at Burnham & Berrow.
The winners from 1995 and 1996 at Radcliffe-on-Trent GC. The Nottinghamshire’ club ran the comptetion before it became the English U16 Championship in 1982 – both went on to play in the Ryder Cup for Europe.
Graeme Storm, the winner in 1994, played in the 1999 Walker Cup and won twice on the European Tour.
Essex’s Oliver Fisher, the McGregor winner in 2004, broke Rose’s record as the youngest ever player in the Walker Cup in 2005, at just 16.
•The 2020 McGregor Trophy was due to be played at Gateshead’s Heworth GC (July 28-30). It is still played at its spiritual home at Ratcliffe-on-Trent every five years.
Conor Gough – one of just three winners of both the Reid and McGregor Trophy. Picture by Leaderboard Photography
Gough one of three to win men’s and U16s
ONLY three McGregor champions have gone on to win the English Amateur – James Heath (1999 and 2004), Paul Waring (2001 and 2006) and Stoke Park’s Conor Gough (2018 and 2019).
Just two years ago, Gough won the McGregor before adding the British Boys title at the age of 15.
He also became the second-youngest English Amateur Champion by beating Northamptonshire County’s Callum Farr, in the final at Surrey’s Hankley Common last summer.
The Walker Cup player was four days older than when Harry Ellis broke Sir Nick Faldo’s 1975 record in the 2012 English Amateur final.
Oscar Sharpe – The Reid winner in 2006
Only three juniors have won the Reid and McGregor Trophy.
And unsurprisingly Gough became the latest player to have achieved the feat in 2018 after winning the Reid in 2016.
Worthing’s Oscar Sharpe became the first in 2006, followed by his Sussex clubmate Toby Tree, when he won the McGregor in 2010 – two years after claiming the U14s title.
Eddie Pepperell won the Reid in 2005 at Bristol & Clifton and is the only winner so far, to have earned a European Tour card.
Kent’s Jonathan Bell ended up on the bag when Tyrrell Hatton claimed two European Tour wins back-to-back in 2017.
The Reid Trophy was created back in 1995, with Porters Park in Hertfordshire staging what became the English U14 Championship for the first five years.
The English U14s was due to be played at Prestbury Golf Club, in Cheshire, for the first time, from August 4-6.
Quartet of Carris winners played Ryder Cup
NOTABLE Carris Trophy winners include Sandy Lyle (1975), Peter Baker (1983), David Gilford (1981) plus Hertfordshire’s Ken Brown (1974) and Peter Townsend (1965) – who all went on to play in the Ryder Cup.
Ken Brown – Picture: WOJCIECH MIGDA
Another Hertfordshire junior destined for the European Tour was Welwyn Garden City’s Tom Lewis, who won the Carris just along the M25 at Moor Park – the event’s spriritual home since it was first played in 1935.
Lewis went on to beat Frilford Heath’s Eddie Pepperell in the British Boys final at Royal St George the following month.
He became just the third player to win the UK’s top two junior events in the same season, matching Townsend, who won the British title for a second time in 1964, the year he claimed the Carris.
Nine Carris winners have gone on to add the English Amateur Championship to their silverware collection.
The first was Ronnie White, who added the men’s title 12 years after he became the third-ever winner of the Carris at Moor Park, in Hertfordshire.
The other double winners are (Carris Trophy first): –
John Langley (1936 and 1950)
Ian Caldwell (1947/8 and 1961)
David Gilford (1981 and 1984)
Ian Garbutt (1989 and 1990)
Mark Foster (1992 and 1994)
Scott Godfrey (1998 and 2001)
Gary Lockerbie (2000 and 2003)
Callum Shinkwin (2010 and 2013)
Lyle rewrote the record books for the Brabazon Trophy – the English Men’s Amateur Strokeplay – by winning it as a 17-year-old in 1975.
The future Masters winner broke the record set in October 1949 by Hampshire’s Paddy Hine, who had won the Carris Trophy at Moor Park earlier that summer, also aged 17.
Ben Schmidt the youngest to complete the Carris and Brabazon Trophy double at just 16. Picture by LEADERBOARD PHOTOGRAPHY
Schmidt became youngest winner of Carris and Brabazon
YORKSHIRE’S Ben Schmidt smashed Sandy Lyle’s record by claiming the Carris at the age of just 16 last summer.
His win came just six weeks after claiming the Brabazon at Alwoodley, in Leeds.
The Reid and McGregor Trophy may not bear Schmidt’s name. But he became just the ninth player – and just the second in the 21st Century – to claim the Carris and Brabazon double.
Hampshire’s Darren Wright was the first. Rowlands Castle’s England international added the Men’s title at Hoylake in 2010 – four years after his Boys’ victory at Sherwood Forest.
Lyle became just the second player to land that double in the same season after Hine. Peter Baker became the third 10 years later,
Sussex’s Gary Evans – who won the Carris in 1986 – shared the Brabazon Trophy two years in a row in 1990 and 1991 – before earning his card on the European Tour.
Nottinghamshire’s Mark Foster was the only player to complete the double in the 1990s.
Kent’s Paul Page became the first Carris winner away from Moor Park, in 1988, at Durham’s Brancepth Castle.
That was the year the English Golf Union adopted the tournament as its official England U18 Boys Open Strokeplay Championship.
The tournament now returns to its original home at Moor Park every five years.
In three of the seven Carris Trophies held at Moor Park since 1989, Hertfordshire players have triumped on three occasions.
David Griffiths, from nearby West Herts won in 1997, was followed by The Hertfordshire GC’s Thomas Haylock in 2005, and Welwyn Garden City’s Tom Lewis in 2009.
•A full list of winners of the Reid and McGregor Trophy can be found on the England Golf website.
