SAM Parsons will bid to become just the second Blackmoor player to win the East Hampshire club’s Selborne Salver in 50 years, when the county’s domestic golf season gets under way on Friday.
It is 30 years since Justin Rose staked his claim as a golf star of the future by winning the Hampshire Hog at North Hants when still just 14 years old, beating most of the country’s leading amateur golfers in the process.
But the celebration of the teenage prodigy’s meteoric rise from the county’s junior ranks to England U18 international has been put on hold at the Fleet club where he was a member.
The 2025 event has been cancelled – having also been lost in 2020 and 2021 to COVID – due to a major upgrade of the North Hants course.
However, that has given organisers at Blackmoor GC, the chance to step in and host two separate 36-hole events starting on Friday, with their traditional Selborne Salver taking place in its regular Saturday spot.
The Blackmoor Salver will be played over two rounds on Friday, and after the conclusion of the Selborne Salver 24 hours later, the player with the best 72-hole aggregate score will receive the prestigious Hampshire Salver – normally awarded after the Hog winner has been declared – for the best weekend total.
Southsea resident Parsons, who memorably won the Hampshire, Isle of Wight and Channel Islands Amateur Championship in front of his fellow members last summer, will be hoping to carry on where he left off, having also won the club’s qualifier two weeks ago to secure his place in the field.
The odds on a Hampshire winner in the new-look tournament, which will be a one-off, have certainly been boosted by a record number of county players getting into the field.
If Sam cannot make it back to back wins on his home course in major championships, county captain Toby Burden will be pinning his hopes on at least one of his first-team squad winning at least one of three trophies up for grabs at the tough heathland course in East Hampshire.
Hayling’s Toby Burden will be hoping to get back to winning ways after receiving treatment for the injuries he picked up last year. Picture by ANDREW GRIFFIN / AMG PICTURES
Burden, who took over the reins of the Hampshire team mid-season last year, has performed better at North Hants than Blackmoor down the years.
But the Hayling man who won the English Champion of Champions in 2019 has taken time off from his busy job in recruitment, to be in the field.
Toby, who won the prestigious Micklem Trophy at Sunningdale in 2022, one of the UK’s leading over-35s events, is looking forward to testing his game at Blackmoor early in the season.
He said: “I have had a couple of top 10s at Blackmoor but I have focused on the Hampshire Salver and tended to finish higher in the Hampshire Salver thanks to some better scores at North Hants.
“The first-team have been working hard over the last three months, with regular training get-togethers and our success as a group down the years means they are all looking forward to the weekend.
“I have had a cortisone injection for my back and some treatment on my shoulder, so I am actually able to play properly for the first time in nearly a year,” said the 37-year-old who reached three county finals in a row from 2019-21 to match double US Seniors Major winner Richard Bland’s feat in the 1990s.
That could be bad news for Sam Parsons and the rest of the field, given Burden dominated the top Hampshire Golf events in 2021 and 2022, claiming two Courage Trophies at the Hampshire Strokeplay Championship and back-to-back Order of Merits.
Darren can Walk the Walkley at Blackmoor
Liphook’s Darren Walkley lost a play-off for the Selborne Salver two years ago against England junior Zac Little. Picture by ANDREW GRIFFIN / AMG PICTURES
ANOTHER player who will be eyeing the chance to add to his cluttered trophy cabinet is Liphook’s former Hampshire, Isle of Wight and Channel Islands Amateur Champion Darren Walkley, who lost a play-off in the Selborne Salver two years ago.
His defeat at the third-extra hole at the hands of England junior Zac Little, from West Herts, was the former Hayling and Southsea GC ace’s first serious competitive action, after the former EuroPro and Pro Tour player regained his amateur status three years ago.
The Westbourne-based carpenter, who was forced to quit pro golf because of COVID, claimed the Courage and Order of Merit in 2023 – his third Cullen Quaich having won the first two in 2014/15 – and regaining his place in the Hampshire team along the way.
The county’s two most experienced players – Stoneham’s Ryan Henley, who missed out on a fourth Sloane Stanley Challenge Cup when losing to Sam Parsons in the 2024 county final – and Brokenhurst Manor’s Martin Young, the most prolific winner in Hampshire’s history, are both skipping the Salvers because of family and work commitments.
Henley won his first county championship at Blackmoor in 2005, having already won the Selborne Salver two months earlier, and claimed the Hampshire Salver at North Hants the following day.
The last Hampshire winner at Blackmoor was Hockley’s Luke Hodgetts, who propelled himself into the Hampshire first-team squad with a surprise victory three years ago..
The 2022 champion will be bidding to emulate amateur legend McEvoy, the only player to have won the Selborne Salver twice – as is defending champion Oliver Toyer, from Cambridgeshire’s St Neots GC and Burgess, of course.
Another East Hampshire golfer who will fancy his chances is Liphook’s George Saunders, who has plenty of pedigree in national strokeplay competitions.
The former Meon Valley G&CC junior came second in The Berkhamsted Trophy, now a 72-hole event which is the traditional curtain-raiser to the amateur season at the weekend, finishing two shots behind England junior Ben Bolton, from Enville, who shot level-par.
Saunders, who was part of the Hampshire team that won the Daily Telegraph Salver at the South East League Final for the second-year running back in October, moved up from fifth to second thanks to his second round of 70.
The former England U16 cap claimed the West of England Amateur Championship as an 18-year-old back in 2018, before heading off to the States where he played at four different colleges as COVID disrupted and delayed his four-year golf scholarship.
Hampshire Order of Merit winner Robert Wheeler, from North Hants, will be looking to get his season under way with the biggest win of his career so far.
And Hampshire Junior Champion Albie Beeston, a fellow North Hants member, will be looking to make up for the disappointment of not being able to test his game against a strong regional – if not national – field at his home club for at least another 12 months.
Two other Blackmoor members will tee it up alongside Parson after finishing second and third in last month’s qualifier – Hampshire Colt Robbie Boxall and James Hollis, the former Nottinghamshire player, who led after 18 holes a year ago.
•FULL details of the first round draw for the Blackmoor Salver on April 11
Blackmoor’s Mark Burgess is still the only homegrown winner of the Selborne Salver in the competition’s 46-history