Hampshire Golf Limited
Hampshire ready for 6-Man test
HAMPSHIRE captain Toby Burden will trust his players to focus on the special requirements of trying to qualify for the English County Finals for the first time since their last South East Qualifier victory eight years ago when they travel to Bedfordshire on Friday.
And if Hampshire are to win the Six-Man as it is dubbed for the eighth time since 2002 – the most victories in the South East Division by one county over the last 25 years by a country mile – they will have to do it without New Forest veteran Martin Young.
The man who captained Hampshire to the English County Championship for just a second time in their long history at Trevose, in 2017, has opted to play in the British Senior Amateur Championship, having recently turned 55 to be eligible for the first time.
Young has played in every one of the last 24 Six-Man championships – another record in the division – playing in all seven finals, but only ending up on the winning team once, when he took on arguably the much more difficult task as a playing-captain, which Burden has also accepted.
Toby will hope that his first crack at the Six-man as captain – he was unavailable 12 months ago because of a long-standing family commitment having taken on the county captaincy just a few weeks earlier – mirrors Young’s success at his second attempt.
The Hayling ace, who played in three Hampshire, Isle of Wight and Channel Islands Amateur Championship finals in a row from 2019, and was crowned English Champion of Champions six years ago, has again had to chop and change his line-up, mirroring their first South East League matches of the season, in which they were unbeaten.
Burden is without the county’ sole Great Britain and Ireland international with Basingstoke’s Walker Cup prospect Charlie Forster on international duty with England at the Euros this week, in Ireland.
Toby would love to have Forster available, especially given how well he played in the first round this week, shooting a first round 65 to lead the individual scorers as England swept into the matchplay phase.
In the last two Six-Man renewals Hampshire finished runners-up to Kent and Essex in 2023, and 2024, with Forster, who made his debut in the competition in 2022, leading after the first round two years ago.
Burden said: “We will miss a player of Charlie’s calibre obviously. The progress he has made since making his Hampshire debut at Hayling three years ago is plain to see for anyone who follows golf.
“I really want him to become just the seventh player since the 1920s to play in the Walker Cup, including Justin Rose, who was the youngest-ever when picked as a 16-year-old in 1997.
“I played a lot of golf with Neil Raymond in the four or five years building up to his selection in 2013, and know how much it meant to him, so we are all rooting for Charlie playing for England this week, hoping they can reach at least another final.”
It means there is at least one space up for grabs in his line-up with North Hants’ Rob Wheeler and Charlie Preston, from Hartley Wintney GC – who came through Regional Open Qualifying at North Hants two weeks ago, showing the strokeplay strength required for the 36-hole shootout at The Millbrook.
Stoneham’s Joe Buenfeld, who beat Preston to win the county championship at Shanklin just over a month ago, made his debut in the Six-man in 2021, and has the game to go low.
Former Lee-on-the Solent member George Saunders – winner of the Hampshire Salver at Blackmoor in April – is playing in the qualifier for a seventh time in eight years, after the 2020 contest was cut by COVID.
The former England U16 cap is now a member at Liphook, with former Challenge Tour player Darren Walkley, who is still out injured with a serious finger injury following his accident at work.
Newly-crowned over 35s English Mid-Amateur Champion Stuart Archibald, the three-time EuroPro Tour winner is also unavailable as he is working with top stars at the DP World Tour’s Scottish Open who use Foresight’s launch monitor.
Their absence opens the door for former England international James Knight, who is now 50, and is another Hampshire player to have spent time in the pro ranks having played alongside Justin Rose some 30 years ago with North Hants’ former EuroPro Tour player Sam De’ath the seventh member of Toby’s squad.
Burden’s men will have to put their foot down to ensure they don’t get overtaken by their rivals coming down the home stretch on Saturday afternoon.
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