TOBY CARRIES BURDEN TO GAIN CRUCIAL HALF FOR DRAW AGAINST KENT

CAPTAIN Toby Burden led a rearguard action to save Hampshire from their first league defeat in three years as he secured the half that gave his side a 6-6 draw in their curtain-raiser against Kent, at Brokenhurst Manor.

The former English Champion of Champions, from Hayling GC, was one-down with three to play against former England junior Jacob Kelso.

The Kent man missed a putt from around eight feet for a birdie on the last which would have ended Hampshire’s run of six undefeated games in a row, since they lost to Surrey at the end of the 2022 season.
 

Burden then holed from six feet having been left with a treacherous up-and-down from left of the green, after almost driving it pin high on the 333-yard 18th.

Minutes earlier, he had been left doubled over his putter after watching his 18-footer for par stop in the jaws of the hole. From above the hole, it looked almost impossible to leave the ball short, having picked the perfect line – but gravity had other ideas.

Kelso had already got out of jail on the penultimate hole, having been forced to take a drop from the ditch. He hit a great recovery around the corner on the 17th before getting up-and-down from 40 feet from the front of the sloping green.

With Rob Wheeler going down the last all-square having lost his ball on the 17th, Burden had got back to all-square with a birdie on the par-five 16th.

Burden had been a much happier figure after the morning foursomes as Hampshire enjoyed a 3-1 lead at lunch.

Having agonised over naming his line-up in the build-up to the game – with Liphook’s Hampshire Salver winner George Saunders having qualified for the Brabazon Trophy at Surrey’s Hankley Common – his picks pulled off the game plan for the alternate-shot format.
 

The only surprise was that Brokenhurst’s Martin Young –, a veteran of some 100 county matches since the mid-90s – was beaten 7&6 playing alongside Rowlands Castle’s Tom Robson.

They were up against Kent county champion Lee Carew and Kelso, who posted the first point on the board for the visitors.

Stoneham’s Joe Buenfeld, who grew up playing in the New Forest at Bramshaw, teamed up with debutant Sam De’ath, from North Hants, to beat Oliver Lewis-Perkins and Conor Byers 3&1 in the top match.

North Hants’ Hampshire Order of Merit winner Robert Wheeler, partnered Test Valley’s Stuart Archibald in their 5&3 win against Kent’s Tommy Lamb and Lucas Dennison.

Burden, playing with Liphook’s Darren Walkley, were not hanging around either, shaking hands with Danny Jones and last year’s McEvoy Trophy winner Jake Potter after winning the 13th to go seven-up.

Buenfeld, who completed his four-year golf scholarship at Texas’ University of the Incarnate Word, earlier this month, went off first – but found himself two-down after five.

He won three holes in a row from sixth, but a par at the 12th was enough for Lewis-Perkins to draw level, only for the former European Junior Open winner to make a birdie at the 13th to edge back in front.

The Kent man was all-square as Buenfeld’s bogey five at the 14th left the former Hartpury College ace trailing. He could only par the long 16th as a birdie put Lewis-Perkins two-up with two-to-play.

Robson, who lost the 2015 Hampshire, Isle of Wight and Channel Islands Amateur Championship final to Walkley, at Brokenhurst, was beaten 6&5 by Byers in the fourth match.

That left Buenfeld needing a three at the 17th to take the match down the last, but having made it, he could only watch in horror as his drive on 18 ended up out-of-bounds, meaning a Kent birdie had levelled the match at 3-3.

De’ath, who made one first-team appearance in 2018 while on a scholarship at Florida’s Webber University, continued the good form he showed at Blackmoor, in last month’s top three finish in the Hampshire Salver.

The former EuroPro Tour player beat Carew 3&1. Meanwhile Young was determined to get a point and made two birdies on the front nine, after losing the first to a three.

Some scrappy golf from Lamb left the three-time county champion five-up at the turn. The lead was extended to six on the 11th, and not even a mistake at the short 12th could prevent the inevitable handshake on the 14th as Hampshire led 5-4.

But it was Kent who were in charge lower down the order – leading all three matches going down the back nine.

Archibald – a three-time EuroPro winner before returning to the amateur ranks in 2020 – won the 10th with a three for par to get back to all-square, but lost the 11th and 12th.

He hit back with a birdie three at the 14th, but a birdie from Potter at the next restored his two-hole advantage. And even though a par was enough to claim the 17th, Archibald could only par the last to lose by one.

In the anchor match, Walkley lost three holes in a row from the 12th to go four-down and a par at the 15th meant he had lost 4&3.

The match was tied at 51/2-51/2 with just Toby and Kelso left out on the course, but the Hampshire captain was able to cope with the burden of salvaging a draw by halving his game.

With just three matches a piece in the South Division after Dorset’s switch to the Channel League three years ago, Hampshire will need two victories against Sussex and Surrey.

Hampshire then need Surrey to beat Kent, and/or they win more game points in their three matches, should any other county also win two.

A third South Division title in a row would match Hampshire’s achievement in 2002, the last time a county won three Daily Telegraph Salvers in a row.

Burden’s men make the short journey to Cowdray Park on June 22, before the captain’s home club host the match with Surrey, on August 3.

Toby should be boosted by the fact that Basingstoke’s Walker Cup prospect Charlie Forster will be back in the UK after appearing in next week’s Arnold Palmer Cup.

The final league game falls a week before the US Amateur Championship at San Fransico’s Olympic Club (August 11-17), which the Great Britain and Ireland international is likely to play.

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