be a fine shot onto the green only for the ball to roll just onto the fringe at the back. Harvey
played a fine chip to three feet, Harry putted but didn’t quite give his ball enough and came up
well short, the missed the putt for a three. Harvey now had a four-footer for the Championship
and calmly knocked the ball into the hole to claim the Trophy.
It had been a superb day’s golf with only two shots separating the top five players, two players
scored eagles in amongst some great scores on this very tricky but fine course.
Our thanks to Addington Palace Golf Club for hosting this event and presenting the course in
superb condition, also thanks to the volunteers who helped make the day a great advert for
golf.
Congratulations to Harvey Byers the 2018 Surrey County Colts Champion.
The Amateur Championship
The 2018 Surrey Amateur Championship was played over the excellent New course at Burhill,
which improves each year with maturity.
Several excellent recent changes to bunkers around the course and a new water hazard on the
long 13th made navigating the course more tricky for the 65 players who entered qualifying on
Friday morning.
Thankfully, like last year at Royal Mid Surrey, the course avoided the thunder storms that had
been forecast all over the South East, and was in excellent condition, with the greens running
fast & true.
Play got underway at 8:00am and news quickly fed back that the defending Champion, Max
O Hagan of West Hill GC, had a putter that was as hot as the sun that was shining down on
the course. 8 birdies and only 1 blemish on his last hole of the morning saw the Florida Tech
student in the lead with a 65 (-7), 4 ahead of his former Physics and PE teacher at Reeds School,
James Wallis, who was bogey free for his 69.
There were further under par scores in round one from Harry Plowman Ollington, Scott Murray
and Duncan Hodgson (all 70), along with Alex Tonge, Peter Baeg, Eamonn O’Connor and last
year’s beaten finalist, Lewis Hinton (all 71).
The wind blew a little more in the afternoon but made no difference to Max and James who
tied at the top of the pack with scores of 68 & 64 respectively for a total of -11. James was lead
qualifier and therefore number 1 seed courtesy of his bogey free (again!) better 2nd round, that
also equalled the course record. James is obviously a man of many talents, having been part of
the British Hockey Team at the 2000 & 2004 Olympics.
The qualifying cut came at 147 (+3) with 16 players on this mark meaning no playoff was
required for the first time in several years.
Some big names missed out including previous two-time champion, David Corben, who had an
uncharacteristic bad day on the greens to miss by a couple.
The draw for the Saturday morning was:
James Wallis v Alex Tonge
Scott Murray v Dominic Griffiths
Harry Ploughman-Ollington v Jacob Aaholm
Peter Baeg v Stuart Beatty
Duncan Hodgson v Harry Uzzell
Charlie Crockett v Lewis Hinton
Callum Mackay v Eamonn O’Connor
Max O’Hagan v Scott Pluthero
James again went bogey free in beating local man Alex on the 16th, whilst Dominic and Scott
needed extra time before Dominic prevailed.
Jacob overcame fellow First team player Harry Plowman Ollington to earn a quarter final against
Peter Baeg of Banstead who had overcome Stuart Beatty of Effingham.
The 3rd quarter final would be between buddies Lewis Hinton and Harry Uzzell, Lewis beating
Charlie Crockett up the last and Harry beating Burhill’s Duncan Hodgson at the 16th.
2017 Champ, Max, sealed his quarter final place taking out Scott Pluthero to meet his best mate and
club mate, Callum Mackay, who had been victorious over Royal Wimbledon’s Eamonn O’Connor.
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