Our County Mens Under 35s Championship took place yesterday, kindly hosted by Ashridge Golf Club, certainly one of our best and most apirational venues in our County. This event was formerly known as the Colts Championship, but changed name when the upper age limit was extended up to 34 years old. The event is tradionally played at the venue of the County Championships in the following year, as such we are very much looking forward to the flagship events taking place at Ashridge in 2026.
The weather leading up to the event was extremely hot and dry, but thankfully conditions on the day, while still warm, was not as sweltering as the previous days, with a strong breeze all day and even some very brisk short showers on a couple of occasions. The Ashridge course has fairway irrigation so as such was a little more green, playable and predicatable than many of our courses would be at the moment, yet still playing firm and fast.
After the morning round, home player Jack Foster led on 70 -2 and was the only player in red figures and would take a 2 shot lead into the afternoon round from both Dan Limrick of The Hertfordshire & George Hall of Porters Park both on 72 level par. A further 7 players were a further shot behind on 73 +1. All to play for in the afternoon round!
If anything conditions became slightly harder as the day progressed as the wind became gustier and the putting surfaces firmer. This however didnt stop Bradley Robinson of Bishop’s Stortford returning a best of the day gross 69 -3 in the afternoon to post a 144 total for the day that proved to be the winning score. Jack Mcgregor of Welwyn Garden City came closest to forcing a playoff when his 15 feet par putt on his last hole the short but tricky short par 4 9th just missed to tie Bradley on 144, but 145 +1 and steady rounds of 73-72 were good enough for sole 2nd place, with his playing partner Harry Eames of Berkhamsted a further 2 shots behind on 147 +3 for the day, edging out Connor O’Brien of Brocket Hall on a back 6 pm countback for 3rd place on the day.
Bradley was runner up in this event in 2021 at Hadley Wood, losing on that occasion to Sam Caney in a playoff, so nice for him to go one step further on this occasion.
Our thanks to Ashridge for hosting us this year. Next years Mens Under 35s event will be held at Brickendon Grange on Sunday 28th June 2026.
