It’s been a quite a year for amateur golf in Great Britain and we asked some our leading players what were their stand-out moments and also asked them to look ahead to 2022
‘He bombed a high three wood to about 12ft. Luckily I was his partner and it was foursomes so I put brotherly disputes aside to congratulate him’
1) Your best round of the year and why?
That’s a good question. There’s not as many good ones to choose from as I’d like so it should be an easy one really. I had a really nice round at Royal Norwich Golf Club in the summer. It was only a casual game with some friends but it was one of those rounds where everything seemed to click. I seemed to get all the right yardages and shot -8. Tournament wise it was probably in the Bishops Bowl at The Wildernesse Club. It’s a 36-hole men’s scratch event and I shot -3 with no bogeys and it was just very stress free, which for a round of golf is an extreme rarity.
2) Your best shot of the year and why?
Again, this is quite a short list unfortunately. For me its probably a type of shot rather than one shot in particular. I’ve always been able to hit a driver of the deck but this year especially I’ve been using it more when teeing off on tight tee shots. I can just aim up the left side of the hole knowing I will never move it right to left in the air and hit it hard. It has come in usefully on many occasions. The 9th and 16th. The Wildernesse Club come into mind.
3) The best shot you saw and why?
There’s two that stand out and incredibly they are from the same player, my brother who will never let me forget I said this. He is off 12 and is capable of hitting both the best shots you’ll see and the most horrific ones, but when the prior happens it always shocks me. The first was on the fourth hole at Rochester and Cobham. It’s a driveable par 4 with OB right and tall trees left to a green you can’t really see. He bombed a high three wood to about 12ft. Luckily I was his partner and it was foursomes so I put brotherly disputes aside to congratulate him. The second one was this past weekend, on the 10th hole at Kings Hill. It’s a decent length par five and out of nowhere from the fairway he pulls out a driver off the deck and rips it to about 20ft. I was genuinely expecting him to be playing his next shot from someone’s kitchen sink in the houses that line the hole on the right hand side. Fair play to him, it was his fourth after he was three off the tee though.
4) Your favourite moment of 2021 (this could be personal or something completely random but golf related)?
Without doubt this would be winning the Kent Amateur Championship. I was really struggling with my game and didn’t expect anything from the week. I got quite lucky with the weather for the qualifying round. It was absolutely awful and I knew scoring would be high which suited me as I wasn’t playing well enough to shoot a low score. I managed to bundle my way round in 73 (+1) and finish second after we were reduced to an 18-hole qualifier (instead of 36). As the matchplay rounds went on I managed to get a better feel for my game and gradually improved managing to win in the final 4&3. This was a competition I’d never won and was desperate to. It’s the biggest tournament in county golf! I had my brother on the bag for the final as well so it was great to win with family on the bag.
5) Your hopes and ambitions for 2022?
Well…. I have a baby girl due in December to add to my three-year-old identical twin girls. So while I’d like to give a very detailed answer about picking specific events to play in to focus on an England call up or Walker Cup ambitions I’d have to say with 3 children, stepping foot on a golf course at all in 2022 would probably be a little bit more realistic.
6) One thing you would change about about golf for next season?
Ideally I’d love to be able to play for the county more. We have such a great group of lads with a mix of youth and shall we say more veteran players (like myself) and a great coaching team. We had a really good year in 2019 and won the national final and I’d really like to be able to help push on and create a team that can leave a legacy because I think all the pieces are in position to do so. I’ll have to run this one by my other half though… wish me luck!