Race to be crowned Hampshire Golf’s Order of Merit winner steps up a gear with three events in three days

Hayling’s Toby Burden playing for Hampshire against Surrey in the South East League South Division match at Rowlands Castle last weekend. Picture: ANDREW GRIFFIN / AMG PICTURES.

The latter is being held at Crookhorn GC on Friday, but most of the big guns will be heading to Brokenhurst Manor for the Mike Smith Memorial on Saturday, writes ANDREW GRIFFIN.

It is the 30th running of the event named in honour of the former British Youths Champion, who was tragically killed in the New Forest in a car crash in 1990, aged just 19.

And 24 hours later the cream of the county’s amateur players will be in Southampton for the annual Stoneham Trophy.

For those players that compete in both, there is also the Solent Salver – donated by Hampshire Golf in the 1980s – for the best aggregate score over the weekend.

The county’s second most important open strokeplay events takes on greater significance when it comes to the Cullen Quaich, which goes to the Order of Merit winner.

The leading 10 Hampshire-based players in the Solent Salver will pick up bonus points in the race to be crowned the 2021 winner of the Hampshire Order of Merit.

There are three more club opens – Sandford Springs’ Scratch Open (Aug 13), Petersfield GC’s Wishart Trophy (Aug 15) and the Blackmoor Open (Aug 27) – which all carry points.

The final event is Hampshire Golf’s 36-hole strokeplay championship – the Courage Trophy – at Blackmoor GC on September 5.

The top 10 combined scores from the Courage and the two qualifying rounds for the Pechell Salver at the county championship back in June, will also earn bonus points.

The leader in that table will also receive the Cole Scuttle when the Courage and Hampshire Mid-Am (over 35s) trophies are presented next month.

Those in contention for the Order of Merit will again be frantically weighing up the permutations when the final scores at the Courage are posted, with close finishes every year since its introduction in 2014.

Bramshaw’s Joe Buenfeld heads the table with 31.33 points after sharing first place among the amateurs at the Hampshire Open at Hayling two weeks ago.

Stoneham’s Ryan Moody, last year’s Courage Trophy winner is currently second, just a point behind after winning the Bramshaw Open last month, and sharing honours at Hayling.

Former mini-tour pro Toby Burden – who has reached three county finals in a row, including his second Sloane-Stanley Challenge Cup win in 2019 – was tied with Moody and Buenfield on his home course, each earning 12.33 points.

The 2019 English Champion of Champions sits in third place with 21.33 points.

He will be keen to add another trophy to his cabinet, having won the Stoneham Trophy back in 2009, the year before he turned pro.

The 34-year-old is looking for his best result in all three events since regaining his amateur status in 2016.

This year’s Order of Merit has been reduced from 13 to 10 events after Hockley’s Delhi Cup, Army GC’s Sapper Trophy, and the Southampton Open were all cancelled due to the pandemic.