Golf: Bramshaw juniors’ Green Jackets joy

BRAMSHAW are off to England Golf’s Junior Champion Club finals later this month after being crowned Hampshire Green Jackets champions for the second time.

Charlotte Lyman and Sebastian Wells were the heroes for the New Forest club as they saw off Guernsey’s La Grande Mare team at Hockley GC last week, and they will now try to win the trophy for the first time.

Having beaten Rowlands Castle in the morning semi-finals, Bramshaw brought in Lyman for the Hampshire Green Jackets final.

Playing off 15, she produced an incredible 10 nett birdies to rack up an astonishing total of 47 Stableford points.

That was 11 more than she would have expected to score had she played to her handicap, but thanks to her stellar nett round of 61, her Guernsey opponents were put well and truly to the sword.

But with the best two of three scores counting, it still required good support from her teammates, and two-handicapper Sebastian Wells did just

that.

With little margin for error, unlike a higher handicapper, Sebastian notched two birdies and three bogeys in his round to collect 35 points, meaning the very respectable 31 points returned by Bramshaw’s Tia Brammer, playing off 11, were discounted.

La Grand Mare’s James Troop tried his best to match Lyman’s heroics, and his 37 points would usually have been enough to help his team to victory.

In the afternoon final, the six-handicapper made six nett birdies and five bogeys, which 16-handicapper Max Raffray matched, with four nett birdies and one bogey, while Tilly Hamilton, playing off 24, came in with 30 points.

Brockenhurst Manor has four Green Jackets victories, one behind the most successful club, Shanklin & Sandown.

Barton-on-Sea, who won three of the first four finals in the 1970s, also have four Green Jackets to their name.

Bramshaw, who last won the Green Jackets in 2016, will travel to Woodhall Spa, the home of England Golf, for the English Junior Champion Club event on 17th-18th August.