There was a serious case of redemption for Stanmore’s Gemma Allman as she collected her second Middlesex County Championship at Hendon.
Having first won the event in 2017, the 22-year-old reached last year’s final at Northwood and lost in unfortunate circumstances. One down at the last and facing a long bunker shot into the green, she proceeded to hit three balls over the green and out of bounds before conceding the match to Hendon’s Julia Kerrigan.
This time around there would be no such drama as Allman, pictured above putting in her semi-final, won five holes on the trot at the start of the back nine on her way to triumphing over Middlesex U-14s champion Saskia Owen (Bush Hill Park) 4&3.
“I played really well in both knockout matches and it was particularly nice after what happened at Northwood last year,” said Gemma, who works in golf for accessories and clothing company surprizeshop.co.uk.
“However what was really nice was playing the competition at the same time as the men. Everything is so much better now that we have one Union rather than separate men’s and women’s and doing it like this brings the county together. There were more people watching and it felt like a real event.”
Those who went along must have been impressed with the efforts of the Bush Hill Park teenager, who led qualifying after a stunning two under par, second round 71.
She maintained that form into her semi-final with her clubmate Jessica Brown, winning 5&3 while Gemma eagled the second in her last four clash with Nicola Foster (Pinner Hill) and never looked back – she won 7&6.
In the final the front nine was really close with Saskia nudging ahead at the nine thanks to a stunning approach which left her with a tap-in birdie.
But the more experienced player took 10 thru 14 to go dormie four and the 15th was halved to end the match.