Albie is the Beeston knees

NORTH Hants Albie Beeston admitted he had never felt as nervous as when he stood over a two-footer to win a play-off and complete the double as Hampshire’s new Boys and U16 Champion, at Weybrook Park.

He produced a birdie four at the first extra-hole on the hottest day of the year to beat his school friend and county team-mate Freddie Gill after the favourite – Conor McKenna, from Royal Guernsey – saw a six-shot lead with 14 holes to play evaporate with a horror run on the back nine, in which he lost seven shots.

Conor seemed to be affected by the searing heat while Beeston kept his cool after holing a 15-footer on the last to post his two-under total.

The teenager, who resembles Justin Rose at a similar age when it comes to his height at least, if not yet his golfing prowess, recently turned 15 – the age the future US Open and Olympic Champion announced himself on the national stage by winning the Carris and McGregor Trophies in the same month to be crowned England’s U18 and U16 champion in 1995.

Albie, like all the youngsters who have followed in the junior ranks at North Hants over the last 30 years, looks up to Rose and has been inspired by his success on the world’s golf stage.

So to get his name on the same honours board as Rose, who won the Hampshire Boys title in 1996, meant a lot to young Albie.

The teenager improved his first round score by eight shots as the mercury in the thermometers at the club on the north side of Basingstoke, shot up above 30 degrees Centigrade.

Albie, who was greeted by his dad Richard on the 10th green after holing the winning putt, said: “I am really happy to win the play-off and the two trophies, but I have to admit I have never been as nervous standing over such a short putt before.

“I knew that Conor had got off to a fast start in round two, but even after a 75 I didn’t think I was out of it, as I thought I could at least still win the U16s title.

“That was my real goal this season, but when I holed a 15-footer for birdie at the last, I had a sneaky suspicion it would count for something.

“Conor was in the group behind me and then I saw Freddie come in just after me and he told me he had got to two-under, the same score as me, and we both realised it was probably a play-off.

“But we had a very long wait before the rest of the field was finished and the play-off could get under way – nearly two hours. It meant we could both cool down a bit and get some liquids on board, because it was really hot out there.“

Beeston bombed his drive into position A on the 10th fairway, while Gill, who started his junior days at Southwood, chose to lay up having been left with 260 yards to the green on the par-five.

Freddie, who was a member of the winning Stoneham team in the Royal Greenjackets Final at Hockley 24 hours earlier, said: “I could have probably got there in two.

“But with all the trouble and the water at the front, and the pin up the back on a sloping green, the percentage play was to lay-up.“

After putting his wedge to around 20 feet below the hole, he could only watch in agony as his ball brushed the edge of the hole without dropping.

Beeston, who had failed to make a birdie on the 10th in either round, was able to chip across the green having found the fringe with his approach, and kept his cool to convert the two-footer for the four and the two titles.

Albie revealed: “The 10th hole nearly cost the championship in the second round. My second went into a bush at the back, and I was literally seconds from being timed out for a lost ball when the referee called me over having found it.

“I still took six, but a lost ball would have meant a double or worse. It was not my favourite hole until the play-off.

“I first started playing golf when I was four or five, and joined Weybrook. I have been a member here for 10 years,” said Beeston, who goes to Sherfield School with Freddie.

“So when I heard the Junior Championship was being played here, I did start to think it was a great opportunity for me to win some silverware – even if I did think that was more likely to be the U16s.“

The lad from Kempshott, who won the inaugural Hampshire U13s title at Cams Hall three years ago – and retained his trophy 12 months later at Lee-on-the-Solent – had almost let his chances go before lunch despite having gone out in one-under.

But he bounced back from a double at the par-three third – thanks to birdies at eight and nine – only to drop three shots in three holes from the 10th, with another going at the 18th as Albie came home in 40.

McKenna, fresh from having been crowned the Channel Islands’ Men’s Amateur Champion with a victory over former Hampshire Boys player Matt Parkman at the weekend, the Guernsey teenager, who made four-birdies before lunch to post three-under, literally caught fire in round two.

He birdied the first four holes to get to seven-under before making a five at the fifth. But there was nothing to suggest a collapse was imminent, but he tangled with trouble at the 10th, as Beeston had in both rounds, and took a seven.

That seemed to unsettle Conor, who then dropped shots at five of his next six holes, as he had to settle for a round of 76 and third place overall on one-over par.

Hartley Wintney’s Charlie Preston was a further shot back in fourth, having carded rounds of 75 and 71, and rueing a cold putter that cost him the chance of contending.

GILL TAKES TWO TROPHIES AFTER PLAY-OFF DEFEAT

FREDDIE Gill had the consolation of taking the U18 and U16 Handicap trophies with his two-under total, playing off scratch, beating Wellow’s Farren Porter by two shots, with Beeston, who was off plus-one, on countback after both carded level-par nett 144s.

Freddie, who helped Albie take Sherfield School to the Independent Schools Golf Association National Championship title in 2022, made four birdies in his first round and three in the second.

In the other age groups, Porter – the son of former England and Great Britain junior international David Porter, who won the Carris Trophy at the English Boys Strokeplay Championship in 1999 – claimed both the gross and nett trophies in the U14s age group.

Farren, who like Albie is very tall for his age, finished nine shots clear of Meon Valley’s Jamie Pang after a 10-shot swing from his morning round, posting an excellent 70 in the searing sunshine.

To show he has many of the attributes that saw his father partner Justin Rose in the Hampshire Boys team at the English County Finals in 1996 when he was just 14, Farren made four birdies and an eagle on his front nine after lunch.

That included three in four holes from the fourth, before the three-handicapper holed his second for an eagle two on the eighth.

But the heat caught up with Porter as well, as he dropped four shots on his back nine. A three at the 13th at least ensured he posted a two-under round and took second place in the U18 handicap trophy.

Royal Guernsey’s Alexander Mills was third in the U16s despite a second round 84, having been in contention for both trophies with a morning round 71.

Liphook’s Ollie Sadler, playing off seven, was third in the U16 handicap stakes, posting level-par nett, to finish behind Beeston on countback.

•FOR FULL SCORES IN THE U18, U16 AND U14s CLICK HERE

BLUNN AND ATKINSON WIN U12s and U10s TROPHIES

IN the U12s Championship, 12-handicapper Ollie Blunn from Royal Winchester took top spot with 31 points in the 18-hole stableford competition, beating Stoneham’s Joe Clothier, who was off 18, by five points. Romsey’s Charlie Ship, also off 18, was third on countback.

Blunn completed the double by winning the U12s handicap prize with 37 points, with Clothier and Ship filling the runners-up spots in the same order as the gross competition.

In the U10s, 11-handicapper Henry Atkinson triumphed with 26 points, one better than Isaac Haunstrup, from Rowlands Castle, playing off 22, and third placed Alfie Hill, from North Hants, who was off 25.

Hill came out on top in the handicap competition, carding an excellent 41 points, two better than Haunstrup with La Moye’s Teddy Millar, off 26, in third after carding 38 points. •FULL SCORES (SELECT ROUND ONE)

•Atkinson is no stranger to winning prizes at a young age. The Lyndhurst lad finished seventh in last year’s IMG Academy World Junior Championshipship at the legendary Torrey Pines course in San Diego, and back in March he was runner-up in the Daily Mail’s World Junior Championship at Marbella’s Villa Padierna GC, in Spain, back in March.