Thurloway, from Chartham Park, beat Gloucestershire’s Joe Long 6&5 in last year’s final at Formby, and is now seeking to become the first player to win back-to-back championships since Paul Casey in 2000 and 2001.

Long, from Lansdown Golf Club, also returns attempting to go one better than last year – having played well in the 2018 Hampshire Hog, which was won by his close friend Mitch Waite, who is now in the pro ranks.

Saunton GC’s Jake Burnage the 2017 Hampshire Hog winner. Picture by ANDREW GRIFFIN / AMG PICTURES

St Andrews Links Trophy winner Jake Burnage, from North Devon’s Saunton GC, also made his breakthrough win at North Hants just two years ago.

Burnage missed the European Amateur Team Championships in Sweden earlier this month – something that would normally preclude a player’s chance of Walker Cup selection.

Burnage, who starteed the season in the England A squad, will be battling against his nine England rivals, who are keen to press their claims for one of the 10 spots in Walker Cup captain Craig Watson’s team to face the Americans at Royal Liverpool, in September.

The top-ranked player in this year’s field is World No. 30, Tom Sloman, from Somerset’s Taunton & Pickeridge Golf Club, who won the individual title at the European Nations Cup at Spain’s Sotogrande, in the spring.

Sloman is joined by Lindrick and Yorkshire’s Bailey Gill and Yeovil and Somerset’s Tom Plumb, who were also part of the English squad that defended the team title in southern Spain – all three are in the GB&I squad.

With the team expected to be named in less than two weeks after the US Amateur, the English event represents B.B.&O.’s David Langley’s last chance to impress on UK soil at least.

Wallasey’s Walker Cup hopeful Joshua McMahon. Picture by ANDREW GRIFFIN / AMG PICTURES

Also looking to impress the Walker Cup selectors are Wallasey’s Josh McMahon, who was named in the provisional 16-man squad after his victory in the Lytham Trophy, in May, and Northamptonshire County’s Ben Jones, who reached the last four in The Amaetur Championship at Portmarnock, in June.

West Cornwall’s Brabazon runner-up Harry Hall and Hexham’s Matty Lamb – who were part of the English team that finished runner-up to hosts Sweden in the recent European Men’s Team Championship – are also heading to the Hampshire-Surrey border with the two qualifying courses which are just 11 miles apart.

Lamb has already won at North Hants this year having claimed the Hampshire Hog with a superb course record 63 in the second round, in April and earned his GB&I call-up with some strong showings since.

Also teeing it up at the Fleet club where Justin Rose made a name for himself as an amateur by Hallamshire and Yorkshire’s Alex Fitzpatrick, whose brother Matt has been a Ryder Cup team-mate of Rose’s.

Wiltshire’s England A squad member Jake Bolton, from Ogbourne Downs, went close at North Hants to landing both the Hampshire Hog and the Hampshire Salver, having to settle for runner-up.

Hexham’s Matty Lamb winner of the Hampshire Hog, at North Hants GC, in April. Picture by ANDREW GRIFFIN / AMG PICTURES

Fellow squad member Billy McKenzie will lead the Hampshire charge aiming to follow in the footsteps of Meon Valley’s Harry Ellis, who became the youngest-ever winner of the English Amateur in 2012, aged just 16, breaking Sir Nick Faldo’s record which had stood since 1975.

Corhampton’s Scott Gregory was the beaten finalist at Saunton in 2014 – two yeas before he became Hampshire’s first-ever Amateur Champion and lost in the 2016 Spanish Amateur to France’s Romain Langasque, who had won the R&A’s prestigious crown the previous summer at Carnoustie.

McKenzie, having had dreams of making this year’s Walker Cup squad after his Spanish Amateur final win over Fitzpatrick in 2018, will be keen to make up for lost time and emulate former Hampshire Boys team-mate’s Gregory and Ellis by reaching the latter stages of the matchplay.

The left-hander, who was ranked in the top five in the USA’s NAIA rankings between 2014 and 2017 while at William Woods University, beat Castle Royle’s Langley 7&6 in front of the Great Britain and Ireland selectors at Portmarnock, last month.

Other England A squad members teeing it up are Northamptonshire County’s Callum Farr, who won the 2018 Selborne Salver at Blackmoor’s equally demanding heathland track, and Cheshire’s James Newton, from Prestbury, winner of the Irish Amateur Strokeplay, in May.

Howley Hall’s Ben Hutchinson, a member of the England A squad. Picture by ANDREW GRIFFIN / AMG PICTURES.

Yorkshire’s Ben Hutchinson, from Howley Hall, Hertfordshire’s Harry Goddard (Hanbury Manor) and Lincolnshire’s Sam Done, from Kenwick Park, are the other England A squad members who will want a good week.

They can push their cases for a place in England’s Home Internationals team that willl head to Lahinch, the recent venue for the Irish Open on the European Tour, as defending champions, in September.

The field of 288 players also includes England Boy’s squad members Barclay Brown, also a member at Yorkshire’s Hallamshire GC, Surrey’s Enrique Dimayuga (Walton Heath), Stoke Park’s 2018 British Boys champion Conor Gough, Dubai=based Josh Hill, Hertfordshire’s Max Hopkins, Suffolk’s Habebul Islam, Trevose’s George Leigh, and Berkshamsted’s Ben Pierleoni.

The players were due to play 18 holes at both courses in qualifying with the top 64 and ties going through to the matchplay, although with a very poor weather forceast, including the threat of thunderstorms, organisers England Golf will be prepared for the possibility of qualifying being decided over 18 holes – as it was at Alwoodley, in Leeds, four years ago.

The seeded draw should commence on Thursday morning at Hankley Common, with a possible preliminary round. The last 32 and 16 matches are scheduled for Friday with the quarter and semi-finals due to be played on Saturday with the 36-hole final on Sunday.

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Chartam Park’s Tom Thurloway is looking forward to adding his Open debut to the England Amateur Championship and Walton Heath Open Amateur he won last year. Picture by SUSSEX COUNTY GOLF UNION

SUSSEX reigning English Amateur champion Thomas Thurloway was another amateur to have a great day at Final Qualfying for the 148th Open Championship at Royal Portrush, later this month, finishing in the top three at Notts Golf Club’s Holinwell.

The England international, from Crawley, who carded two rounds of 69 to finish one shot behind Darlington’s former England international Andrew Wilson on six-under after carding a total of 138.

Thurloway, who is about to go into his senior year at the University of Toledo, had what can only be described as a rollercoaster finish to his second round during which he drove the green on the 346-yard par-four 16th – but then left his eagle putt in the jaws of the hole.

He then watched as his drive on the long 17th clip a tree and drop into the rough no more than 100 yards from the tee. From there he did well to escape with a par-five before completing the job with his fifth birdie of the round on the closing hole.

“It was pretty crazy finish but I’m just glad I did enough to get the job down. I still can’t quite believe it. It’s been a strange sort of year for me after winning the English Amateur. I did win the Seminole Intercollegiate in the States, but I haven’t done quite as well as I thought I would.

“This makes up for all of it though. I’ve always dreamt of playing in The Open and to do it while I’m still am amateur makes it even more special. I’ve never played Portrush but I know a couple of guys who live there so I will have to get on the phone to them. I can’t wait to get there and experience the atmosphere.”

Wilson carded rounds of 69 and 67 to take top spot at on seven-under-par after posting a total of 137. He was five-under through 17 holes of his morning round before carding a double-bogey six on the 18th – but then bounced back in the second round with five birdies in an opening nine half of 31.

The 25-year-old former English international went on to birdie the 14th but then dropped his first shots of the round on the 15th and 16th before regaining his composure to bag two closing pars.

Wilson, who is attached to Rockliffe Hall, the same club as Web.com player Callum Tarren, said: “It means the world to me to play in The Open. It’s awesome. I’ve only been a pro for six months so it’s a big achievement for me and something I’m sure I’m going to get a lot from.

“I felt pretty confident until I bogeyed 15 and 16 and after that I was just praying for two pars. I’m buzzing now but I’ve got to drive home tonight and then go to the next EuroPro Tour event tomorrow.”

The third player to qualify at Notts was former England international Ashton Turner, from Derbyshire. The young Lincolnshire EuroPro player led Final Qualifying last year to earn his spot at Carnoustie.

But this time Turner had to do it the hard way by carding rounds of 67 and 72 and then beating David Coupland at the third hole of a tense play-off with a bogey five after both players had driven into a fairway bunker off the tee.

Turner. who overcame being diagnosed with cerebal palsy at an early age, to become an England junior and Daily Telegraph Junior Champion in 2013, said: “I am very relieved. It was stressful second round. I left myself quite a few testers but fortunately I managed to get most of them in.

“It’s a shame the play-off ended the way it did but I can’t wait to get to get to The Open and give it another go. I’m sure I will learn from my experience last year. It was a bit surreal but now I know what to expect.”

Essex teenager Curtis Knipes tops Prince’s qualifiers with Callum Shinkwin

Lancastrian Jack Senior also made it to The Open for the second year in a row when he finished alongside former Amateur Champions Garrick Porteous at St Annes Old Links on 10-under after carding a total of 134, with Matthew Baldwin, a former England Boys captain, the third qualifier a stroke behind.

Senior, from Heysham just up the Lancashire coast, added his second 67 of the day to finish alongside Newcastle-on-Tyne’s Porteous, who had earlier set the mark of 134, also with a matching pair of 67s.

Senior – the winner of the Hampshire Hog at North Hants in 2011 – bagged five birdies in a row from the second to move to 10-under then birdied the 10th and 12th to storm clear only to drop shots at the 13th and 15th holes before parring home.

“I just like the golf courses round this area and it’s great to make it through for the third time having qualified at Hillside and now here for the last two years,” said Senior who has played on the EuroPro, Alps and Challenge Tours after turning pro eight years ago.

“It’s a dream to play another Open Championship. I missed the cut last year but hopefully I can do the business at Portrush,” added the 30-year-old who beat Jordan Spieth in the 2011 Walker Cup at Royal Aberdeen, when Great Britain and Ireland beat the USA.

Porteous, The Amateur champion in 2013 at Kent’s Royal Cinque Ports, in Deal, had a mixed bag of eight birdies and three bogeys, clinching his place with birdies at the two closing par fives. He said “It means the world to make it. It’s everyone’s dream and it’s such a special year being in Ireland. I’m sure the crowds will be something else.”

Baldwin, from Southport, led after an opening 65 then added an afternoon 70, breaking away from the pack on eight-under with a birdie at the par-five 18th, when he got up and down from 40 feet from just off the green to seal the final qualifying place.

Baldwin, who has been to Qualifying School six times since 2007 and has played five full seasons on the European Tour, said: “I played as good as I’ve played all year this morning. Not so good in the afternoon.

“But it’s incredible to get to Portrush. I’ve played the Irish Open there before. It’s a great course and I’m really excited to be going back,” added the former England Boys captain.

Jack Senior, who won the Hampshire Hog back in 2011. Picture by ANDREW GRIFFIN / AMG PICTURES

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