Boys Team finish 4th at County Boys Qualifier

July 6, 2023

Boys Team finish 4th at County Boys Qualifier

BOYS SQUAD PICTURED AT JOHN O’GAUNT FOR SEG BOYS QUALIFYING, FROM L TO R, FINLAY RENNIE, LOUIE BLOXHAM, HARRY COX, PATRICK DONOVAN, BEN SESSIONS, JAMES BAXTER, EDDIE WADE AND ANTONI HAWKINS (SADLY CUT OFF!)

Report from Boys Team Coach Laurence Allen;

Tuesday 4th July saw 6 of of finest Herts Boys talent represent us at John O’Gaunt in Bedfordshire for the South East group qualifier for the England Golf County Boys Finals.

A blustery practice day on the Monday saw the boys having to put a game plan together to cope with such conditions. Ben Sessions mastering the 16th with a hole in one, how could he better that on the actual day!

Event day saw slightly calmer winds round a tight and testing layout presented in fantastic condition.

Antoni Hawkins opened up with a +2 (73) which was very well battled after slow start. James Baxter was under par for most of his round playing solid golf, just a couple of mistakes towards the end still saw another +2 (73).

County Champion Harry Cox was once again solid with one blip on the 10th saw him in at +2 (73). Ben Sessions made up our 4th score with +5 (76) and finally Finlay Rennie & Louie Bloxham coming in with +8 (79) respectively leaving Team Herts on +19 (5 from 6 scored counting) in 3rd place, some 12 shots behind leaders Surrey at the halfway point. All to play for in afternoon round!

Finlay got us off to a blistering start getting to -3 mid round and finally signing for -1 (70), a great recovery from a difficult morning round. Antoni Hawkins keeping the momentum from his morning adding a level par (71) to keep Hertfordshire putting pressure on the top 2 teams.

Louie Bloxham really improved his score from morning round with a gritty +4 (75) in the now wet conditions in the pm round. Ben Sessions again trending in the right direction with a 1 shot improvement from am round +4 (75) and completing our 5th score was James Baxter playing in the worst of the days conditions with a +5 (76). Not forgetting Harry Cox, with his never give up attitude shooting a +6 (77) being our non counting score for afternoon round.

So +19 am followed by +12 in the afternoon meantTeam Hertfordshire got pipped to 3rd place by Kent by 3 shots, Essex coming 2nd and Surrey ended with a resounding victory on a +8 total for the day and now go forward to represent the South East at the Finals later in the year, again held at John O’Gaunt.

Special mention to our traveling support network, Eddie Wade and Patrick Donovan doing a sterling job encouraging and caddying over the 36 holes, a massive part of the team. Well done boys.

So a creditable 4th place, lots of positives and more importantly 5 of the 6 players can play again next year so with the experience taken we will come back stronger than ever.