Mark Burgess aiming for place in the golfing record books as Selborne Salver takes place for first time since 2019

Burgess, who delighted scores of Blackmoor members at the east Hampshire club with his fairytale win in 2009, would love to match the record of two-time Amateur Champion Peter McEvoy, who captained two winning Walker Cup teams in 1999 and 2001.

McEvoy’s back-to-back Selborne Salver victories in 1979 and 1980 – when he made two of his three appearances at the Augusta Masters – has never been matched since, writes ANDREW GRIFFIN.

That is despite an honours board featuring plenty of Walker and Ryder Cup stars of the future.

Burgess, who has won the Courage Trophy at Hampshire’s Strokeplay Championship twice since 2006, has been working once a month since Christmas with the Hampshire first-team squad at the new practice facilities at Stoneham, followed by nine holes of foursomes.

The long-time Blackmoor member said: ‘Matchplay, either foursomes or singles, is very different to strokeplay. But any competitive golf helps prepare you for the next tournament.’

Burgess would argue that the early date in the amateur calendar negates any extra advantage from knowing the heathland course well.

Victories by England squad members in 14 of the last 22 Selborne Salvers suggests that warm-winter training around the Med – and competitive golf in Australia, South Africa, Spain and Portugal – have given them a bigger advantage in the build-up.

But Burgess has great belief in his ability, despite now being 45 – some 25 years older than the current crop of young England stars.

He dismissed any idea that the biggest win of his career had increased the pressure and expectation of another Salver win, when no other Blackmoor member has ever got his hands on the trophy in the Salver’s 47-year history.

He said: ‘I don’t think winning in 2009 increased my expectation in future Salvers. I appreciate that it is a significant tournament which attracts some of the best players in the country – most of whom are full-time golfers.

‘What it did do, however, was give me the confidence that when I play my best I can win any tournament I’m likely to play in.

‘Unfortunately I haven’t had my best stuff in April since then but it has definitely helped elsewhere when I have won.’

The winner of 11 club championships at the Bordon club is playing well as the 2022 season gets under way, having now fully recovered from the long-standing back problems that finally forced him to have an operation some three-and-a-half years ago.

The pandemic means this weekend will be the first time the Salver has been held in three years, and Burgess can’t wait.

He revealed: ‘It was tough in 2020 – a lot of the usual tournament schedule was cancelled. The bright side was it meant I actually got to play regularly at Blackmoor, which I really enjoyed.

‘During the course of a normal year I play far more rounds away than I do there. The course has been great the last couple of years with the remodelled bunkers on five holes.

‘They are now open and look really good.’

*It is 13 years since Mark Burgess made history by becoming the first Blackmoor player ever to win the famous Selborne Salver.

After a two-year break because of the pandemic, Burgess – and Hampshire’s other leading players – will be looking to compete against the best crop of young

amateurs.

At Blackmoor, the Selborne Salver has been won by the likes of current European Tour players Matt Fitzpatrick and Andy Sullivan, who both made their Ryder Cup debuts in 2016, six and five years respectively after their win.

Walker Cup caps Jordan Smith and Jack Singh-Brar, a former Hampshire Junior champion, have also won the Salver in the last eight years.

In 2003, Ross Fisher claimed the crown and went on to win five times on the European Tour. The big-hitter from Surrey was part of the winning Ryder Cup team at Celtic Manor in 2010.

In total, 12 winners of the Selborne Salver have gone on to be selected for GB&I’s Walker Cup team. Peter McEvoy, the inaugural Salver winner, was selected in 1979, four months after his win in East Hampshire.

Other high-profile names on the board include European Tour winners Jim Payne (1991), future BMW PGA Championship winner Scott Drummond (1995), and Zane

Scotland, who took the trophy in 2003, four years after becoming the youngest player to qualify for the Open in 100 years as a 16-year-old.

In the last decade, Andrew Sullivan shattered the course record with a 60 on his way to his win in 2011, while Fitzpatrick was unable to defend his title in 2013 because he was on international duty for England.

Before 2008, just five Hampshire players had won the Selborne Salver – The Army GC’s Ian Gray (1982), Hayling’s Mark Treleaven (1992), Sandford Springs’ James Knight (1996), Stoneham’s Ryan Henley in 2005 and Hayling’s Mark Thistleton two years later.

But in 2009, Blackmoor finally produced a home-grown champion when Hampshire first-team player Mark Burgess denied another high quality field in front of a large gallery of club members.

Other Hampshire players in the Salver field include former county champions Toby Burden (Hayling) and Tom Robson (Rowlands Castle) and former county captain Colin Roope, a former Blackmoor member now at Rowlands.

Burgess’ county team-mate Ryan Moody, Stoneham’s winner of the Courage Trophy in 2020 – and the runner-up to Burden in last year’s Hampshire Order of Merit – is the fifth member of the squad in the field.

The Selborne Salver, first played for in 1976, would have celebrated its 45th champion in 2020… but will now only have to wait a few more days to crown its latest

champion.