Wiltshire’s young golfers have won the English county boys championship – with not a little help from Marlborough Golf Club’s Jamie Amor.
For Jamie it was ‘a great week with the boys!’: “There were no star players, it was a real team effort. We each knew we had to play our best to get a point”.
At the end of the week there was a big silver cup that records Wiltshire are 2015 English County Boys Champions.
Wiltshire had qualified for the competition by winning the South West championship in July. Qualifying counties from four regions – South West, South East , North and Midlands – played a round robin of morning foursomes and afternoon singles at Kings Lynn Golf Club.
After a shaky start, going behind 3-0 to Durham on the first morning, the Wiltshire team rallied to earn a plucky draw. A narrow victory over a strong Hampshire side
saw them needing to win against Northamptonshire, who had won both their previous matches.
It was nail-biting stuff. After taking the morning foursome 2-1, there was still nothing in it after the first three singles matches were shared.
Step up Jamie Amor from Marlborough Golf Club. A morale-boosting 5 and 4 win opened up a two-point gap for the Wiltshire boys and with just a half needed for victory Dom Burgess (Salisbury and South Wilts) secured it having been dormie one down.
Fourteen year old Tom Stagg (Salisbury and South Wilts) put the icing on the cake with a one hole win in the final match for a convincing 6-3 result.
Jamie Amor was especially impressed by the Kings Lynn course as being ‘tight and beautifully kept’. It is being listed as one of the best 100 golf clubs in England. It was designed by Peter Allis and Dave Thomas and is frequently referred to as an ‘Augusta replica’.