County Championships 2026

Our flagship County events took place last week (Thu 28 – Sun 31 May), with the playing of our County Championships, the pinnacle of our golfing calendar each year. 

The Championships were held this year at Ashridge Golf Club, located in the far west of the county and is one of our most regarded and rated affiliated courses. This was the first time either of the Mens or Womens Championships had been held at Ashridge since 2009. 

The events commenced on the Thursday with the Womens Strokeplay rounds, combined with the Womens Seniors Championship. Over the course of the day over 50 female golfers took part, with 26 playing the 36 hole qualifier and the same number again only playing 18 holes for the Seniors Championship. 

The course, as always was presented beautifully, with the fairway irrigation that was installed some 5-6 years ago proving invaluable in the dry and warm weather we’d experienced recently. The weather on the day was once again bathed in bright sunshine, but up to 30 degree heat proved challenging, particularly for those playing 36 holes. 

The qualifying mark for the weekend KO rounds in the Championship fell on +26, which required a sudden death play off to resolve and decide the 16th seed. This was won on the 1st extra hole by Joanne Norris of Berkhamsted over Lola Hesler of The Hertfordshire. Joanne therefore qualified to face the #1 seed on Saturday am in the Round of 16, the big hitting Haley Yerxa of Bishops Stortford, who returned a 36 hole score of 142 -4 to win the Scratch Aggregate Cup. 

The Womens Seniors Championship saw Debbie Lear of Hadley Wood lead on 78 +5 after the am round of the Championship. In the afternoon, in front of the R2 Championship players were the players only involved in the aforementioned Seniors event. Home player Janet Proudfoot returned the best of the day 77 +4 to win the Seniors crown by 1, over Debbie and Suzanne Thrower of Essendon. The Veterans prize was won by Janet Akers of Brickendon Grange with a gross 84 +11. 

14 year old Amelia Parker of Letchworth managed a double win on the day, best 36 hole nett score for the Anne Pyke Trophy with a impressive -8 on the day and with clubmate and former County Champion Kelly Cooke won the Womens Champion Club crown as a team of 2 by 18 shots!! Letchworth now proceed to the National Final played at the end of August, where they will be joined by another member to make up the full compliment. 

The Friday saw the Men’s Strokeplay event take place, with 65 players playing 36 holes medal from the Black tees to determine our 16 qualifiers for the KO rounds the following day. 

Thankfully the weather was somewhat cooler for the Men and conditions allowed for excellent scoring throughout. Indeed the play-off for the last qualification spot fell on 143 -1, the lowest score in recent memory. 

The medalist was Rio Saigal of Moor Park, fresh back from completing with US college career, with an excellent score of 137 -7, pipping a fellow US college student James Baxter of Centurion into 2nd by virtue of a better R2 score. They would compete to fine margins again in the coming days! A sudden death play off was required to determine the last spots with a 6 man play off playing for 4 remaining spots. The unfortunate parties on the occasion were James York of West Herts and Daniel Stannard of The Hertfordshire. Former County Champions Harry Cox of Welwyn Garden City and Joss Gosling of Harpenden, as well as last years runner up Adam Berg Capin of Sandy Lodge, had safely made their way through to the KO rounds. 

Saturday kicked off with the Round of 16 for both events, followed by the quarter finals in the afternoon for the morning victors. 

Haley Yerxa squeezed through her QF match winning the last 2 holes to win 1up against Nicola Callander of Mill Green. Kelly Cooke similarly had a tight match with Riya Chandaria of Essendon, which required extra holes to resolve in Kelly’s favour. 2023 County Champion Tala Clarke lost out to Mawgan Vater of Porters Park in their QF match up. 

In the Mens event, top seed Rio Saigal won through to the SF matches with relative ease. while 2023 & 2024 Champion Harry Cox won through in dramatic and narrow fashion, needing extra holes vs Ronnie Seagroatt of Hanbury Manor in the morning and on the last versus another junior player, Nick Curran of Sandy Lodge in the afternoon. Both Adam Berg Capin and Joss Gosling bowed out of the event on Saturday, while Herts Salver winner Ethan Akpan of Letchworth performed admirably before losing to County stalwart Jason Mitchell of Porters Park in the QF match 3&2. 

Sunday mornings Semi Final matches saw seeds 1 and 2 progress in both events, with the Womens matches both being narrow victories for Haley Yerxa and Kelly Cooke, and in the Men Rio Saigal finally overcoming Harry Cox on the 21st hole in a titanic battle, to face James Baxter whose relatively serene progression saw him defeat Jason Mitchell 3&2. 

The final matches were played in good spirit, by excellent golfers, but were decidedly different in margin of victory. In the Womens final, Kelly Cooke missed a 5 footer for birdie and a win on the 1st hole which was sadly to be the story of her day. An ice cold putter meant she couldnt match Haley’s consistency and Haley would finish the match on the 11th green with an 8&7 victory. 

The Mens final was a much closer affair – very nip and tuck all the way. Birdies for James Baxter at 7, 9 and 10 would give him a healthy 2 hole lead. Rio was striking the ball superbly but failing to convert putts at this point. Indeed a 3 putt par on the par 5 13th for a half after a majestic long iron approach, looked to be rather emblematic of the match itself. James would hold a 2 hole lead up to the 16th, where a rare mistake from him missing the green on the picturesque par 3, saw Rio halve his deficit to just 1 hole. A birdie 4, once again after a superb long iron approach from Rio, saw the match go all square on the 18th tee. Both players played the last hole well under the upmost pressure and a regulation par from Rio gave James the opportunity to win the match and the title with a 12 foot birdie putt. James hit a great putt but it hit the edge of the hole and stayed out. Extra holes required! Both players went with driver on the par 4 1st hole, which downhill and downwind was basically almost drivable for these young bucks! James found the greenside trap and unfortunately found a poor lie, from which he hit beyond the green and failed to get up and down, leaving Rio the relatively easy task of a chip and 2 putts for the win and the title which he duly obliged. 

Congratulations to our County Champions, who now will both progress to represent Hertfordshire at the England Golf Champion of Champions events played at Woodhall Spa in September. 

Our thanks to Ashridge GC and their members for their considerable efforts in hosting the event. The Club Captains were present throughout meeting & greeting and supporting, the range was provided free of charge to competitors throughout and was manned by member volunteers and ball spotters were a-plenty for the duration.

Next years County Championships will be held at Brickendon Grange GC between Thursday 27th to Sunday 30th May 2027.