There was a finish befitting the venue at the Surrey Men’s County Championship where Aadam Syed got the better of home player Sam Hessian in dramatic circumstances on The Old Course (Sunningdale).
The 18th green at the iconic venue has seen plenty of high-profile drama over the years and on Sunday the two finalists served up a stunning finale. Hessian, who had just birded 17 to keep the game the alive, need to win the final hole to force extra time and looked to have done just that by holing a 25-foot putt for birdie.
But his opponent had other ideas and matched his three by finding the bottom of the cup from 15 feet to win the title for the first time.
The victory was also special for more than one reason for the Foxhills player because it completed the county set. He has previously won Surrey U-12s, U-14s, U-16s and U-18s.
“I thought there is no way this is going to extra holes,” said the 20-year-old two-time winner of the Roehampton Masters. “It was my 12th round of the week and I was done.”
Surrey reach national county final for the first time in eight years
The new champion had arrived from Sunningdale on the back of an excellent ninth-placed finish at the Lagonda Trophy at Gog Magog and took that impressive form straight into the strokeplay stages, leading qualifying by three shots from four players.
He opened up with 69, one behind first round leader Harry Crockett (Addington Palace) and followed it up with a 71 to give himself top seeding.
In the knockout stages he would only trail once. That came in his semi-final with Terry Nicholls (Addington Palace) where Aadam was one down with three to play. The Foxhills golfer took 16 with a par and par was again enough on 18 to claim the spoils with his opponent finding trouble off the tee.
In the final Aadam raced into a two-hole lead thanks to back-to-back birdies and then reeled off seven pars, taking a three-hole lead into the back nine.
However Sam took advantage of a couple of bogeys from his opponent at 11 and 14 to cut the cap to one before Syed claimed 16 to go dormie before the drama really began.