Frustrating time for Hampshire golf captain Neil Dawson as lockdown restrictions continue

A match against Alresford to mark last year’s 50th anniversary of the fixture – and cancelled because of storms in 2020 – was due to feature first-team members rather than juniors on Valentine’s Day.

But with golf courses still closed, it will have to be rearranged later in the year, writes ANDREW GRIFFIN.

And Hampshire’s annual Past, Present and Future fixture at Hayling, set for the end of this month, will almost certainly also require a new date.

The annual fixture against the Hampshire PGA – set for Brokenhurst Manor at the end of March – could also be under threat unless the lockdown is lifted in the coming weeks.

Both the first team and Hampshire Seniors are due to travel to Jersey in late April for friendlies against the Channel Islands, before the competitive season gets under way in early May, all being well.

Dawson, who is set to captain the county in 2021 and 2022 after his first season was wiped out by the pandemic, said: ‘We originally planned to play some informal golf with squad members over Christmas, but that was thwarted by the lockdown.

‘We have a first-team session provisionally planned at Liphook in March, but that’s it so far with the two February events unable to go ahead as planned.

‘The last time we got together as a group was back in August.

‘We will have to do bits ad hoc when the restrictions change – but we will have some good planning for both the ‘Six-man’ and September’s English County Finals if we do qualify.’

Hampshire’s first South East League Division One match in 2021 should see them travel to Broadstone to face Dorset, on May 9, with Kent travelling to Winchester’s Hockley GC, on Twyford Down, on May 30.

Last year, Dawson saw his first two warm-up events disrupted by the weather, before the first lockdown closed golf courses in late March, wiping out friendlies against the Hampshire PGA and the Channel Islands.

Hampshire’s four fixtures in the England Golf South East League – played between May and August – all bit the dust, along with last July’s South East qualifier for the English County Championship.

England Golf scrapped the four regional qualifiers – but planned to invite the 40 counties, who compete annually, to send a four-man team to a changed format for the 2020 English County Finals.

It was due to be played at Seacroft, a tough Lincolnshire links course, in its traditional late September date.

Dawson took a team of six up to Skegness in August to get a feel for the test awaiting them.

He was quietly confident the two foursomes and fourball pairings – to be played over 36 holes on both days – would have made Hampshire strong favourites to claim just their third County Championship win in more than 90 years.

But the new-look finals were scrapped less than a month before it was due to be played because of continued concerns over the spread of the virus.

England Golf has published its provisional championship schedule with the 2021 English County Finals set to be played at Dorset’s exclusive Remedy Oak, which has been used for Regional Qualifying for the Open Championship in the past.