THE 2024 Hampshire Golf season and the race for the Cullen Quaich is turning into a shoot-out between North Hants’ Robert Wheeler and James Atkins, starting at Aldershot’s Army Golf Club.
The pair are playing in the Courage Trophy on Sunday, at Army GC, with less than a quarter of a point separating them in the Hampshire Golf Order of Merit standings.
And for the first time since the Cullen Quaich was presented by former Hampshire Golf president Tony Cullen, from Hockley, to reward the most consistent performer across nearly a dozen events each year, the trophy will not be decided by the county strokeplay championship.
Due to planning problems at the start of the season the Hampshire PGA’s Hampshire Open is not being played until Wednesday.
Robert Wheeler with the Bren Gun trophy after winning the Aldershot club’s 36-hole open in June.
And because there is an amateur category in the county’s most prestigious 36-hole competition open to both club professionals and Hampshire’s top amateurs, the winner of the Courage Trophy, who has gone on to claim the Order of Merit title in the last three years, will not be guaranteed to take home the Cullen Quaich as well.
Regardless, there is a strong chance a new name will appear on the trophy, which has been won twice by Hayling’s Toby Burden (2021 and 2022) and three times by Liphook’s defending champion Darren Walkely, who won the first two in 2014 and 2015, before becoming the first play to land a hat-trick last year.
Walkley is currently 11.5 points behind current leader James Atkins, from North Hants Golf Club, with clubmate Robert Wheeler just 0.17 points behind him, having won the Army Open back in June.
That gives Wheeler a big advantage having won around the Laffin’s track already this season, as the Tournament Golf College graduate goes in search of his first Courage Trophy win, having lost his place in the county first-team.
Wheeler and Atkins, who reached the last four of the county championship for the first time in June, helped Hampshire reach the South East Challenge League Final for a second year running last weekend, need a strong finish in the Courage to give themselves a chance when the Order of Merit race is decided at Hockley, on Wednesday.
Both are in the Hampshire Open field, and a change in the rules will rule out the chances of Martin Young adding a second Cullen Quaich to the CV with the most wins in Hampshire Golf’s history.
Young, from Brokenhurst Manor, is 14 points behind the leading pair but is not entered in the Hampshire Open – while Walkley is not entered in either of the last two events.
Brokenhurst Manor’s Martin Young receiving the Cullen Quaich from Hampshire Golf president Alan Drayton (left) after winning the Hampshire Order of Merit in 2019. Picture by ANDREW GRIFFIN / AMG PICTURES
The former English Mid-Amateur Champion has won the Courage Trophy five times – the last was back in 2018 at Basingstoke GC, and a sixth win would boost his points total to 48.
But the 2017 Hampshire Golf Order of Merit winner would need realistically need to win the Courage for a sixth time and hope that Atkins and Wheeler fail to collect more than six points in the last two events.
With the change in rules in 2022 ending the bonus points awarded to players in the top 10 in the Cole Scuttle – the trophy awarded to the best aggregate in the Courage and the Pechell Salver (the 36-hole qualifying scores at the county championship) – and for the best performances in the Solent Salver, from the Stoneham Trophy and Mike Smith Memorial, the equation is quite simple for the two leaders.
A win in the Courage is worth 20 points, with 16 for the runner-up, and 13 and 11 for the players in the top four, and 5-10 awarded to those in the next six spots, while the Hampshire Open is worth 15 and 12 points to the top two respectively in the leading amateur category.
Twenty amateurs are entered in the total field of 42 – considerably down on previous years – with between three and 10 points awarded to the rest of the top 10.
If either Wheeler or Atkins finish in the top two in the Courage, it will increase the pressure on the other in the Hampshire Open, with less points on offer in the final event. But for Atkins, as long as he finishes no worse than Wheeler in both events, that 0.17 difference might prove to be decisive.
•You can follow live scoring in the Courage at Army Golf Club at the Hampshire Golf website here.
Liphook Golf Club’s Darren Walkey claimed the Courage Trophy and Cole Scuttle at Barton-on-Sea GC 12 months ago. Picture by ANDREW GRIFFIN / AMG PICTURES