The first team, lead by Lawrence Cherry in his first match in charge, got off to a winning start in the South East League, winning comfortably against a strong Kent side at an immaculately presented Liphook Golf Club on Sunday 28th May. Final scores can be seenhere.
The morning foursomes looked in the balance for the first few hours of play as the Hampshire team settled in to their matches, a few early nerves potentially on show after such a long lay off from County Golf over the Winter. These doubts were shortly cast aside as the top match- Toby Burden and Charlie Forster turned the screw on the back nine with a flurry of birdies, closing out their match 2&1. The two Joe's (Hacker and Beunfield) took their time to take the lead and only moved ahead after the 13th hole but once they had their noses in front made sure to stay that way and closed out their match 3&1 with some solid golf down the stretch.
With the leaderboard turning blue, at one point all 4 foursomes matches were leading but a strong Kent pairing pegged Martin Young and Robbie Wheeler back by winning the 14th hole in a close match- a 1up lead the opposition held until the 18th hole where the Kent duo pulled off an up and down from the trees that, quite frankly, would have made Seve Ballesteros proud! To make sure that Hampshire took the lead going in to lunch, Luke Hodgetts and Stu Archibald took an early lead in their match and didn't ever look back- closing out their opening foursomes with an emphatic 6&4 win.
After a quick turnaround the singles kicked off with Toby Burden leading the way, staying calm throughout his match despite falling behind he used his experience to work himself back in to the match when it mattered, eventually winning by 2 holes.
This set the tone for the remainder of the singles and, despite losses from Joe Beunfield and Jo Hacker, the momentum remained blue. Charlie Forster over powered the Liphook Heathland as well as his opponent cruising to a 4&3 win whilst Martin Young dominated in his match, reaching the turn 7 up before shaking hands on the 13th green. Needing only half a point from the matches on the course the job was nearly done and when Robbie Wheeler calmly polished off his match 4&3 the good news spread round the course and Lawrence could breath a sigh of relief after getting his opening league match off to a winning start in the best possible way.
The First Team turn their attentions to the next match- played on the tricky East Brighton GC in Sussex on the 25th June.