HAMPSHIRE’S Walker Cup prospect Charlie Forster got his 2025 season off to a flying start with victory in Vegas as his Long Beach State team took the team title in last month’s Lake Las Vegas Invitational.
It was Forster’s second win in the States since first heading to Southeastern Louisiana University four years ago.
But with Great Britain and Ireland heading to California to face America in the Walker Cup in early September, a win on US soil has given his selection chances a huge shot in the arm.
Forster became just the second Hampshire player to represent Europe in the Sir Michael Bonallack Trophy in nearly 30 years when he faced Asia in Dubai back in January.
Although Europe were beaten by just a point at Al Hamra Golf Club, it was another big step in Charlie’s education at the highest elite level in amateur golf, having gatecrashed the GB&I team last summer, when he made his debut before he had even been capped by England.
After that GB&I debut in last summer’s St Andrews Trophy match against Europe at Royal Porthcawl, Forster appeared in the Home Internationals as England finished second behind Ireland, in Scotland.
Along with this top 15 finish in the European Amateur Championship in Denmark in June, Walker Cup captain Dean Robertson clearly likes what he has seen in Forster’s game since watching him beat Europe’s No. 1 in the 2024 Amateur Championship at Ballyliffin last summer.Having switched to Long Beach in August 2023 after two seasons at Louisiana, Forster got his maiden win for his Southern California team in style in the Nevada desert with a record-breaking total.
Long Beach’s Lake Las Vegas Invitational winner Charlie Forster with his dad Lance after his victory in Nevada
The Basingstoke GC ace – who was also a junior member at North Hants where Justin Rose shot to fame as an amateur by finishing fourth alongside Tiger Woods in the 1998 Open at Royal Birkdale – finished the Las Vegas Lake International on a total of 13-under par after 54 holes.
His wire-to-wire victory – the 34th win by a Long Beach player in the university’s history – was built on an opening 64, his eight-under total comprising seven birdies and an eagle, with just a solitary bogey on his card at the final hole.
He slept on a seven-shot lead after the second round at the Reflection Bay GC, after a solid 68 in the NCAA Division One tournament, making four birdies in five holes from the sixth, picking up another two shots on the back nine, either side of a second bogey of the week.
Team-mate Alejandro De Casto proved to be his closest challenger in the final round, firing a 68 to reduce Charlie’s winning margin to four shots, as Forster settled for a one-under 71, making a birdie at the final hole after reeling off 11 pars in a row following a dropped shot at the par-five sixth.
It gave Long Beach their lowest-ever winning total on a par-72 course as they took the title by 25 shots.
•FINAL SCORES LAKE LAS VEGAS INVITATIONAL
Long haul from Louisiana to Los Angeles
CHARLIE Forster’s best finish for Long Beach in the first five tournaments of the 2024/25 season was his tied fourth in the Ram Masters Invitational, in the opening event in September.
That was followed by him finishing fifth in October’s Preserve Collegiate event, up the California coast in Carmel, not far from where the Walker Cup will be played at the renowned Cypress Point in September.
The Peter Symonds College graduate’s first win Stateside came in September 2022 – during his second season at Southeastern Louisiana University. He won the Derek Dolenc Invitational, earning him the Southlands Conference Golfer of the Month.
He brought the curtain down on his SEL career by being named Soutlands Player of the Year in May 2023, having been runner-up in the Conference Championship a year earlier to qualify for the NCAA Regional Finals for the first time.
In his first season at Long Beach – where past graduates include Open Champion Xander Schauffele and Augusta winner Mark O’Meara – Forster finished fourth in the NCAA Regional Qualifier as his Los Angeles-based team missed out on the national finals by just a shot, having won the Big West Conference for a second year in a row.
Charlie, who is studying marketing, was named The Big West Conference’s Player of the Month after his Vegas victory, and finished 14th in the Arizona Thunderbirds Intercollegiate tournament, as Long Beach finished second.
Charlie Forster (fourth from right) celebrates Long Beach State’s victory in the 2024 Big West Conference Championship. Picture LONG BEACH STATE ATHLETICS