The young England U16 team that lost by three points to Ireland at Hunstanton. Picture by LEADERBOARD PHOTOGRAPHY

A YOUNG England Under 16 squad earned praise for their gritty play in a narrow defeat to Ireland.

The visitors emerged from two days of tough competition at Norfolk’s Hunstanton Golf Club with a 16½-13½victory.

The win was sweet revenge for Ireland following England’s triumph at Limerick GC a year ago.

But there is much for the England staff and players to build on as they look ahead to the European Team Championships and Home Internationals in 2020 and beyond.

After the first day’s play featuring both foursomes and singles matches, Ireland held a 10½/2-7½ lead.

They were then made to fight all the way with honours even in terms of the 12 singles games on the second day, which produced a 6-6 tie allowing Ireland to claim overall victory.

Ireland’s strength lie particularly in the boys’ section but there was some sparkling golf on show from both countries.

The combined girls’ and boys’ teams had to put up with some treacherous conditions  – especially on Sunday when the wind and rain swept into Norfolk and produced some appalling weather for golf.

Yet the standard of play was of a very high standard.

Josh Berry beat Ireland’s England U16 Strokeplay Champion Josh Hill 6&5 in the Sunday singles. Picture by LEADERBOARD PHOTOGRAPHY

From the boys’ point of view the form of Yorkshire’s Joshua Berry was noteworthy – the 14-year-old managing to claim big singles victories against Joe Byrne and full Irish international Josh Hill – winner of the McGregor Trophy in July – by shooting under-par on both days.

Worcestershire’s Scottish U14 Boys Open Champion Hugh Adams, who was runner-up in the Reid Trophy, in August, also put two points on the board in singles to re-inforce his growing reputation at junior level.

In the girls’ squad, Nelson GC’s Lydia Cryer can also feel justifiably proud of her efforts having won all three games she played.

The Lancashire junior displayed great character to win both her singles matches on the 18th green.

Meanwhile, for the second season in succession Surrey’s Rafiah Banday ended the Irish match unbeaten – winning a foursomes tie and taking one and a half points from the Royal Mid-Surrey teeanger’s two singles games.

Even for those players unable to win full points or simply new to the set-up, there was plenty to admire about the way they coped with exposure to the international scene.

Close House’s Maggie Whitehead’s singles victory over Katie Poots on Sunday will fill the Northumberland-based player with confidence going forward.

Meanwhile, Farnham’s Lottie Woad was three-down with three to play in her singles game against Anna Dawson.

But the reigning Surrey Ladies Amateur Champion – who is just 16 – fought back to earn a half.

Ireland’s Beth Coulter had to come from two-down with two to play to deny Arcot Hall’s Rachel Gourley a point that her overall play perhaps merited.

A birdie on 17 and a fantastic up-and-down on 18 denied glory for Gourley, the second Northumbrian in the England team.

After the conclusion of the autumn round of junior internationals, England’s regional and national squads will meet up for coaching over the winter months at Woodhall Spa, the National Golf Centre, in Lincolnshire.

The juniors will receive one-to-one coaching and advice, which forms part of a personal development plan.

For full results from Hunstanton GC, click here.

England team:–
Hugh Adams (Hagley GC)
Jack Bigham (Harpenden GC)
Josh Berry (Doncaster GC)
Jack Ingham (Eindhovensche GC)
Harley Smith (Rayleigh GC)
George Durkan (Bishop’s Storford GC)
Thomas Hull (Spalding GC)
Rafiah Banday (Royal Mid Surrey GC)
Ameila Wan (Notts Ladies GC)
Maggie Whitehead (Close House GC)
Lydia Cryer (Nelson GC)
Rachel Gourley (Arcot Hall GC)
Lottie Woad (Farnham GC)

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STOKE Park’s Conor Gough produced a sparkling performance to win the English Men’s Amateur Championship at Surrey’s Hankley Common, on Sunday.

The 16-year-old – who claimed the British Boys title a year ago – beat 20-year-old Callum Farr, from Northamptonshire County, 3&2 in the final.

The title adds to the McGregor Trophy he won last year – and dropped a heavy hint to the Walker Cup selectors, who left him out of their 16-man squad in July less than six months after including him in a 29-strong group.

And in winning his national championship Gough became the second youngest-ever winner of the English crown – just missing out on breaking Harry Ellis’ record by four days, after the Meon Valley G&CC teenager broke Sir Nick Faldo’s record in 2012, 37 years after it was set by Hertfordshire’s then 18-year-old future Masters winner.

Gough – who celebrates his 17th birthday in September – spent much of the early part of the season studying for his GCSEs but clearly the enforced break has had no detrimental effect on his golf.

He began the morning round of the final by hitting a 350-yard drive down the first and then holing out from 12-feet for a birdie and seven holes later he was three up after a birdie on the sixth and an eagle on the eighth.

Farr claimed his first hole of the day when he birdied from just off the front of the green at the 10^th but he could never quite reel in his opponent and he was four down heading into lunch before he won the 18^th with a par.

Farr started the second round strongly by winning the first with a birdie and the second with a par.

But last year’s Selborne Salver winner found himself three down again after dropping shots at both the fourth and fifth.

The pair then shared eight birdies between them before Gough sealed victory with a testing four-foot downhill putt for a par on the short 16^th.

“It feels great to win,” said Gough moments after holing the winning putt. “I played really well. I love matchplay and as soon as I got through the strokeplay qualifier I knew I had a good chance.

“I’m proud of myself. I’ve got a couple of big weeks coming up so I hope I can keep things going.

“I’ve got the Boys’ Home Internationals next week and then the US Amateur Championship at Pinehurst.

“I’m really looking forward to that. It’s the same format as this so hopefully I can put in another good performance.”

It was impossible not to feel for England A squad member Farr, who has now reached the last four and the last two in the past two years without tasting success.

“I hit the ball better this afternoon but just couldn’t get the putts to drop,” Farr said. “I’m disappointed, but Conor is a very good player and he deserved to win because he played a lot better than me.

“I got to the semi-final last year and now the final so maybe next year will be my year,” Farr added.

Burnage beaten by Gough in semis

In Saturday’s semi-finals, Saunton’s Jake Burnage – who was looking to cement his own Walker Cup place by adding the English Amateur title to the St Andrews Links Trophy he claimed in early June – lost 4&3 to Gough.

Burnage, who won three times in 2017 to make a late bid to earn Walker Cup selection from virtually nowhere, had beaten The Buckinghamshire’s Will Shackleton 5&4 in the fourth round.

The Devon man then raced into the last four winning by the same margin against Sussex’s Jack Floydd, from Haywards Heath GC, who has been playing on the Alps and MENA Tours this year as an amateur.

Gough had ended Essex’s Curtis Knipes’ hopes of emulating Todd Clements – the 2017 winner – beating the Chelmsford player – who qualified for The Open at Royal Portrush last month – by 3&2.

In the other half of the draw Farr ended the dreams of another Essex hopeful beating Bradley Bawden – who played NCJAA for the University of Memphis’ Tigers team for two years after two years at Eastern Florida State – by 2&1.

That followed a 4&3 win over Walton Heath’s England Boys cap Enrique Dimayuga, who clearly felt at home on another of Surrey’s finest heathland courses, in the quarter-final.

Bawden had beaten recent Tillman Trophy winner Joe Harvey, from Gloucesterdshire’s Kendleshire GC, 2&1 to book his place in the last four.

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Stoke Park’s Conor Gough won the McGregor Tophy at the 2018 English Boys U16 Amateur Open Championship, beating off Rotherham’s Ben Schmidt, who bcame the the first 16 year-old to win the Brabazon Trophy at the English Men’s Amateur Strokeplay, in May.
Picture by LEADERBOARD PHOTOGRAPHY

KNOWN as The McGregor Trophy, the England Golf junior championship returns to its spiritual home at Radcliffe-on-Trent, in Nottinghamshire, next week.

So any spectators who attend over the three days from July 16-18 can expect to see players who will graduate to the European Tour – and most likely prove to be winners in waiting.

The likes of Jim Payne – one of only two players to have successfully defended the McGregor in 37 years – Steve Webster, Graeme Storm, Oliver Fisher and Paul Waring, who won the Nordea Masters in Sweden last summer, adorn the honours board at the club, which created the first national Under 16 event, and was adopted by the English Golf Union in 1993.

Two years later Rose, a member at North Hants, would claim The McGregor at Radcliffe-on-Trent – just days before the future US Open winner would become the only player to land the U16 and U18 titles in the same season by winning The Carris at Burnham & Berrow.

JUSTIN ROSE PLAYING IN THE 1993 McGREGOR TROPHY

As well as attracting the best young players from England many of the Continent’s top teenage talents head for these shores in July to test themselves in The McGregor, including the younger Molinari brother, who won in 1996.

Dutch golf had high hopes for Wouter de Vries when he won the trophy at Rotheram in 2003, while the likes of Middlesborough’s Michael Skelton, Ealing’s Yasin Ali and Combe Wood’s James Heath, all became leading English junior and men’s internationals after claiming the English U16 crown.

In more recent times, Goodwood’s Marco Penge claimed the title at Seacroft in the North East, in 2015, while Denmark’s Rasmus Hjogaard has graduated to the European Challenge Tour – along with his twin brother Nicolai – just three years after Rasmus’ win at Royal Ashdown Forest.

Denmark’s John Axelson won The McGregor in 2014 – one of seven of the 37 champions to come from Continental Europe

Denmark’s John Axelson who won in 2014 – the last time Radcliffe-on-Trent hosted The McGregor – was runner-up in the medal honours after the 36-hole strokeplay qualifier at The Amateur Championship, at Portmarnock, last month.

Last year’s champion – Stoke Park’s Conor Gough, who won at Kedleston Park, in Derbyshire – went on to become the 2018 Boys’ Amateur Champion, while runner-up Ben Schmidt, from Rotherham GC, became the youngest-ever Brabazon Trophy winner in 70 years, in May.

This year’s championship will feature players from 16 countries. Among those aiming to keep the trophy in English hands is Hagley’s Hugh Adams, from Worcestershire, who won the English U14s Reid Trophy last year.

Adams showed his strong nerves then, coming through a four-hole play-off to take the title at Reading GC.

Others likely to be in the mix are Dubai-based Josh Hill, who was in England’s winning team at the 2018 Boys’ Home Internationals and the U16 internationals Josh Berry, from Doncaster GC, Stoke Park’s Tom Gregory, and Welwyn Garden City’s Reis Suart – plus Royal Liverpool’s Matthew Dodd-Berry, who won the Midland U16 Championship earlier this year.

Among the international challengers will be players from the other home countries and many European nations, with Spain and Italy both sending large squads.

The championship returns every five years to Radcliffe-on-Trent, where it began in 1982, and was played for the first 17 years.

The McGregor Trophy is played over 72 holes. The full field plays 18 holes on each of the first two days with the leading 40 and ties qualifying for the final 36 holes on the last day.

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