NORTH Hants came up a little shy in their bid to become the first club to be crowned English Champion Club in both the men’s and women’s amateur game as heavy rain forced England Golf to reduce the second event to 27 holes.
And Robert Wheeler was left even more frustrated by the weather as he finished just one shot behind the leading individual at Nottinghamshire’s Stanton-in-the-Wolds.
While most ardent golf fans were watching Rory McIlroy lose a play-off with American Billy Horschel, who claimed a second BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, the North Hants trio of James Atkins, Sam De’ath and Robert Wheeler finished seven shots behind Castle Royle, the new champions, representing Berks, Bucks and Oxfordshire.
Ironically, James Atkins, who reached the semi-finals of the Hampshire, Isle of Wight and Channel Islands Amateur Championship for the first time in June, works at Wentworth in the purchasing department, and would normally have been enjoying the weekend drama at the famous Berkshire course, which is home to the DP World Tour.
North Hants found themselves in the chasing pack as Castle Royle trailed South Staffordshire by a shot, despite Atkins having a day to forget coming home in 81, leaving Wheeler and De’ath needing as many birdies as possible.
The latter now works for Golf Monthly having had a brief spell playing the EuroPro Tour after graduating from Florida’s Webber International University in 2017.
His scorecard contained virtually every feasible score, from a snowman eight on the sixth, which cost him three shots – having opened up with birdies at the first and fourth – to an eagle three.
De’ath bounced back brilliantly with two more birdies at the seventh and ninth, justifying the club’s faith in picking him to replace Christian Lindgreen, who was back in the States having started a Masters degree at Harding University.
The former Hampshire Boys player, who spent four years at Cumberland University, in Tennessee, was in the North Hants team that won the Hampshire Team Championship at Blackmoor, back in June, when Atkins was second in the Pechell Salver qualifier, with Lindgreen in fourth.
Sam De’ath was called into the North Hants team when US college golfer Christian Lindgreen returned to the USA. Picture by ANDREW GRIFFIN / AMG PICTURES
De’ath saw shots go at the 10th and 11th, but a birdie four at the 12th had North Hants on the leaders’ heels after Wheeler had reached the turn in three-under, crucially with no bogeys on his card.
At level-par, De’ath made his sixth shot of the day on the 15th, he bounced back again brilliantly by eagling the last to get to one-under par after a topsy-turvy day on the course reputed to have the best greens in Nottinghamshire.
Wheeler could not capitalise on the two par-fives on the final two holes, but the recent good form of the newly-crowned Hampshire Open champion, was evident as he parred eight of the back nine, picking up a shot at the 14th.
His four-under total saw him sharing the lead in the individual race, with Castle Royle’s Nick Scrutton, with North Hants tied third on the leaderboard in the race to be crowned England Champion Club.
After heavy overnight rain, and with a gloomy forecast for more of the same during the day, England Golf took the decision to restrict the second round to nine holes, which effectively ended North Hants hopes of matching the women’s victory at Hessle GC earlier in the month.
With two par-threes and two par-fives on the front nine, the leading clubs were left with some calls to make on their strategy with just a shot between Castle Royle and The South Staffordshire.
Kibworth (Leicestershire & Rutland) and North Hants needed help from the leaders with eight shots to make up and all three players from the Fleet club picked up a birdie at the third, having made six pars on the first two holes between them.
North Hants GC’s James Atkins completed the nine holes on Sunday in one-over par as bad weather cut the event to 27 holes. Picture by ANDREW GRIFFIN / AMG IMAGES
De’ath dropped a shot at the fourth but got it back at the sixth, while Atkins made bogeys at the fifth and sixth as Wheeler could not make birdie at the first par-five. Worse with Leicestershire’s Richard Wale having closed the gap on Wheeler with a birdie at the third.
Castle Royle’s Nick Scutton, who matched Wheeler’s 69 on Saturday, fell out of the lead with after making a double at the sixth, having opened with a birdie at the first,
Wale also dropped a shot at the seventh to keep Wheeler’s one-shot lead, but the Kibworth member finished with back-to-back birdies, while the Hampshire ace could only par the last to miss out by one.
It left the 22-year-old from Aldershot, who caddies at Sunningdale since graduating from Cornwall’s Tournament Golf College at the start of the year, with a current form of 2-1-2 going into next month’s South East League Final, against Essex.
Wheeler lost his place in the eight-man league team having appeared for out-going captain Lawrence Cherry, who left North Hants in May to take up a dream job managing The Montgomerie GC in Dubai.
His successor Toby Burden has to find a replacement for US college golfer Charlie Forster, the former North Hants junior who won the South of England Boys Open in 2021, who is now in contention to play in next year’s Walker Cup at Cypress Point, in California, having transferred to Long Beach State in Los Angeles, a year ago.
With Wheeler’s experience of playing in the South East League last year, and his displays in the Challenge League, helping Hampshire’s second string reach their final for a second year in a row, both county team captains will have Robert’s name high on their list.
•FULL ENGLAND CHAMPION CLUB RESULTS
Left to right: Richard Harris, Toby Burden and Kevin Hickman with the de Montmorency Trophy after Hayling GC were crowned English Champion Club winners at Stoke-by-Nayland GC, in 2016.
HAYLING were the last Hampshire team to claim the De Montmorency Trophy with their incredible turnaround victory at Stoke-by-Nayland eight years ago.
The team of Toby Burden – the current Hampshire captain – Richard Harris, and Kevin Hickman turned around a 14-shot deficit to win by two shots in Suffolk shooting an eight-under par second round between them while Woburn took eight shots more on the Sunday.
In a remarkable back nine, Hayling made up eight shots having still been 19-over par after ninne holes in round two.
Burden and Harris, who had claimed the Hampshire Team Championship with Hickman when Hayling hosted the county championship three months earlier, would go on to win the Sloane-Stanley Challenge Cup in the county finals in 2019 and 2020 respectively.
Brokenhust Manor, who were the first Hampshire team to win the de Montmorency Trophy back in 1988, also became the first English club to be crowned European Champions a month later at Spain’s Aloha GC.
Only City of Newcastle (2019) and Ealing (1989 and 1990) have matched that feat since.
Nineteen years after Brokenhurst Manor’s first win, the trio of Martin Young, his brother Jonahthan, and teenager Robert Gowers won the English Champion Club by two strokes, at Hesketh GC.
The trio, who posted the eventual winning total quite early in the day, the joint overnight leaders beat Worthing from neighbouring county Sussex after Cheshire’s Sandiways fell away.
Left to right: Brokenhurst Manor’s Martin Young, Rob Gowers and Jonathan Young with the de Montmorency Trophy. Picture ENGLISH GOLF UNION