ONE of Hampshire Golf’s most popular and well-known figures will be honoured on Sunday when the County Strokeplay Championship is renamed the Keith Maplesden Bowl.
The former Hampshire Golf secretary and president passed away two years ago after a short illness.
HIs untimely death triggered tributes from the likes of Major winner and Olympic Champion Justin Rose, and European Tour stalwarts including Richard Bland and Matt Blackey – plus countless leading English amateur internationals such as Scott Gregory, Harry Ellis, Neil Raymond, and Sam Hutsby, who all played Walker Cup for Great Britain and Ireland.
Hampshire Golf secretary Richard Arnold said: “Everyone was shocked at Keith’s sudden passing.
“Having been involved in administering amateur golf in the county for 30 years, there was some one at every one of the 70-plus affiliated clubs in Hampshire, the Isle of Wight and Channel Islands who knew Keith well.
“The Courage Trophy has a long history dating back to the 1960s based on sponsorship by the brewery across the country back then.
“The county executive spent some time last year thinking about how we could mark Keith’s incredible impact on golf in Hampshire during his time as secretary before deciding on changing the Courage to the Keith Maplesden Bowl.
He retired at the end of the 2005 season before becoming our president for three years in 2007, as well as acting as the treasurer for much of his time on the executive.
“Even when he stepped back from those roles, he was always a strong supporter of everything the county did, whether it was coming to watch a county game or one of our championships.
“Keith will always be associated with Liphook where he was a member for all that time too, and he is greatly missed.
“Many of the players such as Justin Rose, Dave Porter and Sam Hutsby – who all captained England Boys – grew up playing for Hampshire when Keith was their first point of contact.
“He would always be there to help with making entry and travel arrangements, but also just be a friendly face, who did not add any pressures to the demands of playing at the highest levels for both county and country.
“Hampshire won the English County Championship for the first time in our long history when Keith was secretary in 1996 – Justin Rose was just 16 at the time playing in the final at Woodhall Spa.
Left to right: Five-time Courage winner Martin Young, Walker Cup player Neil Raymond, the winner in 2008, and England Boys captain Sam Hutsby, who won on his home course at Lee-on-the-Solent in 2005. Pictures by ANDREW GRIFFIN / AMG PICTURES
“Keith was a very modest man, but he was very, very proud of being associated with that team, and a signed copy of the picture of them after their win at Woodhall Spa was presented to him when he retired.
“We are delighted that Keith’s wife Sue, who was often at his side while on Hampshire duty, will be joining us at Hockley for the newly-named event, and to see the Keith Maplesden Bowl presented for the first time.”
The old Courage Trophy marked the final event of the Hampshire Order of Merit for the past 10 years – in the old days it was only open to club champions for that current season, until it was opened up to all of the county’s leading amateurs having been an invitational event at one point.
Keith’s successor Barry Morgan merged the Courage with the Hampshire Mid-Amateur Championship for the over 35s so they are played on the same day to boost the fields for both events.
The Courage has been won a record seven times by David Harrison, Alresford’s former R&A Captain, who also has won more county championships than any other player when he was a member at Stoneham in the 1960s and ’70s.
After Brokenhurst Manor’s John Branden won the first at Bournemouth’s Queen’s Park, Harrison won the next four renewals, a feat that has never been matched.
Former England Amateur Champion and long-standing county captain Kevin Weeks claimed the title six times between 1978 and 1990, while Hampshire’s latest England Senior cap Martin Young, has five wins to his name between 2004 and 2019.
Current Order of Merit champion Rob Wheeler, from North Hants, who also leads the standings this year, is away on holiday, leaving four past winners in the field, including Blackmoor’s Mark Burgess, and defending champion Paul Telfer, the former Saints and Scotland defender, who plays at Hockley.
Fittingly, Wellow’s former Great Britain and Ireland junior international Dave Porter, who claimed the Hampshire, Isle of Wight and Channel Islands Amateur Championship in 2003 before turning pro, is turning out in memory of Keith Maplesden, having regained his amateur status a couple of years ago.
His son Farren, last year’s Hampshire U14 Champion, is also playing along with Stoneham’s Freddie Gill, who was runner-up in last year’s junior championship, and claimed the U16 title.
Three former county captains will tee it off in memory of the late county secretary – Neil Dawson (North Hants), Colin Roope (Rowlands Castle) and Lawrence Cherry (Stoneham).
The Courage Trophy was won 10 times by a member from the host club – the first was Stoneham’s Mike Danby in 1968, five years after the Courage was first played for.
Jersey’s Barry Melville won it at La Moye in 1974 before Stoneham’s E Venables in 1976. The list includes Weeks, at Brokenhurst, four years later, followed by Alan Mew at Stoneham in 1992, and England internationals Darren Henley at the same venue in 2000.
Blackmoor’s Mark Burgess (2010) Brokenhurst Manor’s Young (2014), Corhampton’s Scott Gregory (2015) and Stoneham’s Ryan Moody (2020) are the other players to cash in home advantage.
Surprisingly, Stoneham’s Ryan Henley has never won county strokeplay title, but has been runner-up on a number of occasions. Burgess is the only double winner playing for the new trophy this weekend.
Indeed, there could hardly be a more fitting first winner of the Keith Maplesden Bowl than Henley, who has four county championships to his name, currently standing in the top five of all-time winners of the Sloane-Stanley Challenge Cup, given he also won the Delhi Cup at Hockley, five years in a row up until 2014 and beat Darren Walkley in the county championship final at Twyford Down two years ago.
Young, who has won the Hampshire Mid-Amateur title 11 times, was called-up for his first European Seniors Amateur Team Championship this week, after playing in his first two over-55 events in July and August, so will miss the chance to add to his record in the county’s two strokeplay events for men.
•FOLLOW LIVE SCORING IN THE KEITH MAPLESDEN BOWL
Hockley’s former Saints defender Paul Telfer who won the last Courage Trophy, at Army GC. Picture by ANDREW GRIFFIN / AMG PICTURES