Our County Boys Championship took place on Monday this week (28th July), at the nominal ‘home’ of Hertfordshire Golf, Knebworth Golf Club, which is where our Staff Offices have been located since 2022.Â
The 3-peat reigning champion, Harry Cox of Welwyn Garden City, was playing at the Mens English Amateur Championship this week, so we were guaranteed of a new winner this year. Event favourite would have been Ben Sessions of Bishop’s Stortford, after this excellent showing at the previous weeks Boys Carris Trophy at Luffenham Heath in Rutland, where Ben finished in an excellent 3rd position, including a then Course Record score of 62 – 8. However, it was a strong field with many challengers and 36 holes of medal strokeplay to navigate first.Â
The conditions for the event could be described as excellent for scoring. The rain over the previous period had taken most of the fire out of the course and the weather on the day was warm and dry, without being too hot, and light breezes across the day. Perfect!Â
After Round 1 the event was going as perhaps envisioned with Ben returning the only under par round with a score of 68 -3, to lead by 4 from a pack of players on 72 +1.Â
Ben would stretch his lead further in the afternoon round when he returned another round of 68 -3, for a total of 138 for the day -6. Ben’s pm card was helped by a perfect shot on the downhill par 3 8th hole, Ben’s 17th of his round, when he holed his tee shot for a hole-in-one, the 6th of his fledgling golfing career. Ben would win the Boys title by 6 clear shots from his nearest challenger, River Gardiner of Porters Park, who returned two very steady rounds of 72 for a total of 144 +2. River did have the consolation of winning the Malcolm Reid Trophy for the best Under 16 score of the day by 2 shots from Lewis Salthouse of West Herts on 146 +4, who was also 3rd in the overall Boys event.Â
Ben now progresses to represent Hertfordshire as the Boys Champion of Champions event at Woodhall Spa in September, where he will look to emulate Harry Cox’s success from last year – best of luck Ben!Â
Our thanks to our hosts Knebworth GC for allowing us to use the course and facilities for the day, and delaying their major annual greens maintenance by a day in order for the event to be played as planned. Â
