A chat with England Golf’s Men’s Squad Manager Gareth Jenkins proved productive for Cumbrian Will Coxon, who won the Hampshire Salver last night.
FORMAT: 72-hole stroke play
The University of Stirling student made a slow start at Blackmoor – the event is jointly held with North Hants – but three sucessive 67s gave him the title by two shots from Ben Quinney (Kings Hill), Joe Harvey (The Kendleshire) and Zach Little (West Herts).
The World No 615 – he will move higher after his weekend success – is one of a significant number of players being looked at by nationals selectors. The 20-year-old came sixth at the Lytham Trophy last year and earlier this month won the R&A Student Tour Series Final on his first visit to St Andrews.
With the Walker Cup taking place at the Home of Golf at the end of August, Coxon admitted pushing himself into GB&I contention has “crossed my mind” with the race for the ten team spots widely acknowledged to be wide open.
Coxon said: “I had a Zoom call with Gareth Jenkins and he said it (Hampshire Salver) is a good tournament to play in in terms of getting noticed regarding selection for different teams.
“It was the first time I had played in it and it was a nice boost to get the win.”
The open is made up of the Selborne Salver (Blackmoor) and Hampshire Hog (North Hants) and Coxon’s opening 75 (+6) on Saturday morning left him out of contention with Little taking home the Selborne Salver after a play-off with Liphook’s Darren Walkley.
The following day the action moved to North Hants and Coxon and Quinney both opened with 67s to lead by one and both repeated their efforts after lunch although the Carus Green player missed a three-foot par putt to win The Hog.
The duo then went into extra time and Quinney executed a brilliant up and down at the 10th to extend the tournament but then missed the same 3-footer Coxon had missed less than an hour earlier to hand the title to his opponent.
The Cumbrian ace finished two under for his 72 holes while Little suffered an unfortunate double at the last to finish level with England duo Harvey and Quinney while Coxon’s university team-mate Greg Hurley (The Herfordshire) was a shot further back in fifth.