Warwickshire Golf
CAVE & KNOWLES WIN AT COVENTRY
The Warwickshire Boys Championship was played at Coventry Golf Club on 29th July.
The course was in near perfect condition for the Championship and we also managed to secure a perfect 'weather window' in-between some very bad weather a day either side.
Unfortunately one of the favourites coming into this event was Sam Easterbrook (Wishaw) who for all good reasons had withdraw from this event to continue some great play in the English Mens Amateur Championship were he eventually got knocked out in the last 16. Well played Sam!
Other players had to also withdraw through injury and covid related problems, but there were a number of strong names left in the field. This included reigning 2019 Boys Champion Seb Cave (The Belfry), who only 6 weeks earlier had won the Warwickshire Mens Amateur Championship and was keen to keep his name on the Boys Trophy.
After round one Seb was one step closer to achieving a double Championship win with a 3 under par 70. This was closely followed by Boys Captain Alex Ford (Copt Heath) on 72 and Under 16 contender Sam Knowles (Wishaw) on 74, a position shared with Finley Stokes (Atherstone). Seb's morning round contained no fewer than 6 birdies, a sure sign of a man in form. Although Alex had converted 5 of his own in his morning round so it was all to play for.
With Sam Knowles returning his 74 he found himself on a 8 shot lead for the Under 16's Trophy, his back nine being one of the highlights for him with 2 birdies and an eagle on the par 4 12th hole.
It is often expected by players to do better in their afternoon round and for the leaders in the Under 18 Championship didn't disappoint, Finley Stokes returned a score one better than his morning offering with a 73 and sat on a total of 1 over par. Alex Ford found an extra birdie in his afternoon round and one less bogey to return a 3 under par 70 and a total of 4 under par (this score certainly good enough to take top honours most years). But Seb also found TWO more birdies making a grand total of 8 on his second round and he also managed to curtail the bogies. Six of these birdies were on the back nine to return a fantastic 31 to help him to return a 7 under par total of 66. Matched with his morning round this gave Seb a total of 10 under par and his name engraved on the Boys Championship for another year.
For the Under 16's Championship although he started with a birdie on his 19th hole of the day, Sam didn't quite beat his first round score, but due to his great first round score he didn't have to. Sam had won the Under 16 Championship by 13 shots! - very well done Sam. This is Sams second County title after he won the U12's Championship back in 2016 and in 2019 narrowly missed out on the Under 14 title aswell.
Next year Sam's age means he leaves the U16 age group to compete inly for the U18 title. However, as Seb is still under 18 on 1st January next year, he also gets to compete to try and get his name on the trophy for the third time. The last time this was done was by Steve Webster from 1990-1993.
Seb and Sam both qualify for the Midland Junior Champion of Champions event at Peterborough Milton on 19th September. We wish them both the very best of luck.
The Union once again offers our thanks to Coventry Golf Club for hosting this Championship, we were extremely well looked after both in and around the Clubhouse and on the course. It was a memorable Championship with some great scores.
FOR PHOTOS OF THE EVENT CLICK HERE
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Matt Nixon
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