Justin Rose (right) wants to put something back into the game by sponsoring the Telegraph Junior Championship. Picture by ANDREW GRIFFIN / AMG PICTURES

HAMPSHIRE’S Justin Rose has lent his name to the competition that helped him on his way to stardom – The Telegraph Junior Championship.

And record-breaker Ben Schmidt is earning similar plaudits that followed the North Hants GC junior in the mid 1990s.

The Yorkshire teenager, who broke two big records earlier this summer by becoming the youngest player to land the English Strokeplay double, is the hot favourite for the Justin Rose Telegraph Junior Championship, which gets under way at Portugal’s Quinta de Lago, today (Wednesday).

Olympic Champion Rose won the Hampshire Hog at his home club as a 14 year old, in 1995 before adding the McGregor and Carris Trophies at the English U16 and U18 Strokeplay Championships – a feat not matched since.

But Schmidt not only became the youngest-ever winner of the Brabazon Trophy at just 16 when he won the English Amateur Strokeplay at Alwoodley GC, in May, he then added the Carris a few weeks later at the English Boys Amateur Strokeplay’s spiritual home at Hertfordshire’s Moor Park.

In both instances, Schmidt broke records held since 1974 by Sandy Lyle, who won both the Brabazon and Carris as a 17-year-old.

Rotherham GC’s Ben Schmidt won the Brabazon, Carris and Sir Henry Cooper Masters in 2019

Having been named as a reserve for the Walker Cup, which Great Britain and Ireland lost to the USA at Royal Liverpool in September, Schmidt’s chance to break Fisher’s record has gone for good.

Now 17, the Rotherham GC member has been tipped for the top by Green Jacket winner Danny Willett, who hails from the same club.

Willett said of Schmidt, who also won Kent’s top Sir Henry Cooper Junior Masters event at Nizels, in June, said: “This kid is destined for the big time.”

Willett’s caddy Samy Haywood was bemused by the R&A’s decision to not pick Schmidt in August, while another 16-year-old – Stoke Park’s Conor Gough – got the nod after winning the English Amateur at Hankley Common, the week before the team was picked.

Rose came through the same Hampshire junior programme that produced its first two Amateur Champions for the county in Harry Ellis and Scott Gregory in 2016 and 2017, and both players have looked up to Rose and his win at the 2013 US Open for inspiration.

Justin believes winning the Telegraph in 1997 put him firmly on the path to success in the professional game.

It was his first victory overseas and followed having become the youngest-ever Walker Cup player after his 17^th birthday that summer.

Justin Rose (right) won the Daily Telegraph Junior Championship in 1997

Rose revealed: “When I won this tournament it acted as springboard to me realising my dreams.

“This is an unofficial major in junior golf and you can see that by the quality of those who have previously won.

“In front of the TV cameras, this is their chance to put their marker down. People will take notice.”

Schmidt, who started the year some 5,000 places below his current World Amateur Golf Ranking of No. 8, has had some time to reflect on his success in 2019.

“It’s been crazy looking back on it, and, if I’m being honest, the amount of success I enjoyed this year has been unexpected.

“It all just clicked over the summer and everything changed for me in a matter of weeks.

“I just got on a roll. I came out of winter training and made a decent start to the season, despite not having played competitively for a few months.

“I won the Yorkshire Boys in May, which was a real boost and it progressed from there.

“Once I won that first event, I started every tournament thinking only about the win. I just had so much confidence,” added Schmidt, who is favourite to follow Rose by winning the Telegraph Junior Championship title this week.

Rose, who now lives in the Bahamas, knows that feeling after his first golden season in 1995 which saw him win two national championships as well as the famous Hampshire Hog.

Rose said: “This is a nod to where I’ve come from. I have done lots of charitable work in the US.

“But this is my first way of trying to give back to golf in the UK – and its really important to me.

“The championship is 35 years old and – as well as me – there have been some other winners who have gone on to big things.”

Those past champions include Sheffield Ryder Cup player Matt Fitzpatrick and Essex’s Oliver Fisher – who broke Rose’s record as the youngest Walker Cup player in 2005, in Chicago.

Ryder Cup star Tommy Fleetwood finished second when he reached the Daily Telegraph finals.

In the women’s game, Ladies European Tour winner Carly Booth, Solheim Cup winner Jodi Ewart-Shadoff and former England Girls Champion Melissa Reid, who has played in three Solheim Cups, are past winners of the Daily Telegraph Girls’ Championship,

Yorkshire’s Rebecca Hudson, who dominated English amateur golf in the 1990s and early 2000s, claimed the trophy three times in four years.

Rose, who announced his sponsorship of the event back in March added: “The quality of those champions shows it is run incredibly well, and I wanted to get behind a well-oiled machine.

“But I would still love to help to grow it. We’ve added some players and some spots to the field this year, and my aim is to see different categories going forward – and to broaden its reach.”

Other names to watch this week in the Algarve are Worcestershire’s 2018 Reid Trophy winner Hugh Adams, from Hagley GC, and Bishop’s Stortford’s Max Hopkins, the Telegraph Champion in 2017.

The increase to 12 finalist spots for 2019 is not the only first – Somerset sisters Mimi and Patience Rhodes, who are members at Burnham and Berrow, will become the first siblings to play in the final – of either sex.

They will be watched by grandmother Susan, who has been recovering from cancer treatment, but was well enough to see them play for Europe in the Ping Junior Solheim Cup, at Gleneagles, in September.

England junior international Mimi was fifth in qualifying at the Women’s Amateur, at Royal County Down, in June, and third in qualifying for the Girls Amateur Championship at Panmure, in August.

Rhodes sisters, Banday and Scanlon all write history in girls’ event

THE increase to 12 finalist spots for 2019 is not the only first – Somerset sisters Mimi and Patience Rhodes, who are members at Burnham and Berrow, will become the first siblings to play in the final – of either sex.

They will be watched by grandmother Susan, who has been recovering from cancer treatment, but was well enough to see them play for Europe in the Ping Junior Solheim Cup, at Gleneagles, in September.

England junior international Mimi was fifth in qualifying at the Women’s Amateur, at Royal County Down, in June, and third in qualifying for the Girls Amateur Championship at Panmure, in August

Surrey’s Rafiah Banday is sure to attract the Sky TV cameras over three rounds on Quinta do Lago’s North Course, as the Wembley-raised teenager, who is a member at Royal Mid-Surrey, will play in a hijab, confirming the growing diversity of golf in the UK.

Huddersfield’s Charlotte Heath won the Sir Henry Cooper Junior Masters in 2018

England junior internationals Charlotte Heath, Rosie Belsham and Banday will have their eyes firmly on the prize this week, while Welsh international Darcey Harry will have similar ideas.

But it is The Buckinghamshire’s Roisin Scanlon, who makes history after becoming the youngest finalist in the Telegraph’s history at the age of just 12.

Scanlon has a reputation for enjoying competing against the older girls at county events and junior opens despite not even being a teenager.

All the players have come through a number of qualifying events across the country this summer, with the lowest 12 scores against par booking their seats on the plane to Portugal.

Finalists: BOYS – Ben Schmidt (Rotherham), Hugh Adams (Hagley), Aaron Marshall (Lisburn), Rhys Wallace (Handsworth), Cameron Adam (Royal Burgess), Miles Gray (Etching Hill), Jack Kelso (Kings Hill), Craig Passmore (Torquay), Henry Hayward (Kedleston Park), Oscar Fuentes (Bearwood Lakes), Calvin Holmes (Quinta do Lago).

GIRLS – Charlotte Heath (Huddersfield), Rosie Belsham (Whitley Bay), Rafia Banday (Royal Mid-Surrey) Evanna Hyde (Lundin Links), Carmen Hall (Aboyne), Darcey Harry (Vale Resort), Chloe Haesler (Broadstone), Lily Hirst (Woodsome Hall), Roisin Scanlon (The Buckinghamshire), Grace Rigby-Walden (Gerrards Cross).

Last year’s Telegraph Junior Championship winners Barclay Brown (Hallamshire GC) and Enville’s Sophie Johnson. Picture courtesy of DAILY TELEGRAPH

The post Justin Rose puts his money where his heart is to help his Telegraph memories live on appeared first on Golf North.

ENGLAND have won the R&A Boys’ Home Internationals for the fourth year running after defeating Ireland 8-7 in a nail-biting title decider at Ashburnham Golf Club.

For the second straight year, England triumphed at the expense of its Irish counterparts in a tense contest at the South Wales links course.

The match was almost a carbon copy of last year at Royal Dornoch. England won the deciding match by the identical score of 8-7 but, as with 12 months ago, it could have easily gone to the Irish.

England staged a remarkable comeback after losing the first morning foursomes session in three days of competition.

The Irish took a two-point lead into the 10 afternoon singles after winning the foursomes 3½-1½ – and looked like winning the trophy for the first time since 2013.

The early projections in the afternoon were Ireland would go on to win 8-7.But England slowly turned the tables on a strong Ireland team with good victories in the first seven matches.

They won five of those matches to get in front and it was an edge they would never relinquish.

Stoke Park’s World No. 2 Conor Gough led his side in the first singles matches and the B.B.&O. teeanger gained a half against Tom McKibbin.

Conor Gough, winner of last week’s English Amateur at Hankley Common, earned England a vital half against Ireland’s Tom McKibbin, in the Boys’ Home Internatinals, at Ashburnham.
Picture by ANDREW GRIFFIN / AMG PICTURES

That result took the score to 4-2. USA-based Joe Pagdin and Peterborough Milton’s Robin Williams quickly evened the score at 4-4 with respective victories over Luke O’Neill and Aaron Marshal.

Ireland’s Joshua Hill hit back with a 5&4 victory over Hallamshire’s Barclay Brown to put Ireland ahead.

Hill deserves special mention as the reigning McGregor Trophy champion was the only player over the three days to win six points out of six.

England’s Max Hopkins, from Bishop’s Stortford, in Hertfordshire, wasn’t far behind, winning five and a half out of a possible six points.

Hill’s brilliant play couldn’t stop the English comeback though. The trio of Hopkins, Enrique Dimayuga, from Walton Heath, and Ipswich’s Habebul Islam put three further points on the board

That took their side to seven points and within reach of a fourth straight title win.

Islam’s match proved key to England’s success. He held a one-hole lead against Simon Walker playing the last and looked like he might lose the hole when he hit his second shot close to the out-of-bounds line on the left.

Suffolk’s Habebul Islam made a superb up-and-down on the last to beat ireland’s Simon Walker to set up the deciding match in England’s favour at Ashburnham GC. Picture by ANDREW GRIFFIN / AMG PICTURES

He then made the up and down of his young life, pitching the ball from 80 yards to four feet and holing the subsequent putt for par after Walker had missed his 20-foot birdie putt.

Cue delight from the English players watching Islam playing the 18^th. That point set up Callum Macfie to deliver the coup de grace.

The Lindrick teenager duly did so by birdieing the 17^th hole to defeat Max Kennedy 2&1 and ensure England retained the trophy for yet another year.

England captain Stephen Burnett said: “Even though we lost the foursomes this morning, I just felt that we could get six points out of the singles and that would do the job.

“We’ve got a very strong team and I knew they might just be stronger over the closing nine holes when the conditions got a little tougher.

“The wind picked up and the back nine played harder and the boys showed their talent by turning matches around that Ireland could’ve won.

“We got a lot of good performances. I thought Conor’s half point in the first match was important to get us off to a good start.

“Habebul’s par at the 18^th when he got up and down from 80 yards was crucial because it set up Callum to take us over the line, which he did.

“I’m over the moon,” Burnett added.

His Irish counterpart Alasdair Gibson was proud of his players despite coming up short for teh second year in a row.

Gibson said: “For the second year in a row we’ve just came up short. That’s golf. The first nine holes of the singles we were looking okay and it just turned around a bit.

“We were always struggling in matches there on the back nine. We did very well this morning in the foursomes. The boys played very well.

“The golf this afternoon was very good. There were a lot of birdies out there and at the end of the day they got more than we did.

“It was good effort but we just came up short. There’s no shame in losing to a strong team like England.”

Scotland and Wales finally got some joy in the foursomes after difficult results in the first two days.

They split the session 2½-2½ to set up an intriguing singles contest in the match for third place. Scotland won the session 6½-3½ to beat the Welsh 9-6 to finish third.

For full match results over the three days click here.

COVER IMAGE: England after winning the R&A Boys’ Home Internationals four a fourth year in a row by defeating Ireland at Ashburnham GC, on Thursday. Picture by THE R&A / GETTY IMAGES

The post England make it four Boys’ Home International titles out of four with win over Ireland appeared first on Golf North.