If you happen to recognize the sound of a sweetly-struck golf ball, head for Berkhamsted Golf Membership on Thursday April third this 12 months, when 108 of the UK’s elite novice golfers will strike their first tee pictures within the sixty fourth annual Berkhamsted Trophy.
Merely yards aside, Berkhamsted’s 1st and tenth holes will see a procession of this 12 months’s brightest {golfing} skills from early within the morning as they start their quest to observe within the sneakers of Ryder Cup legends equivalent to Sandy Lyle and Luke Donald, and greats of the novice recreation equivalent to Peter McEvoy and Gary Wolstenholme, all of whom claimed the Trophy earlier than happening to have glittering careers within the sport.
Opponents have till 12 midday on Thursday thirteenth March to submit their entries to this traditional occasion, wealthy in historical past. Golfers with a handicap of two.1 or much less are invited to use on-line at www.berkhamstedgolfclub.co.uk, though the poll is commonly a number of pictures decrease. Within the 2024 occasion the poll cutoff fell on the +2.3 mark.
TOURNAMENT FORMAT
The 2-tee begin alerts the normal opening 72-hole event of the boys’s elite novice season in England, and for the sixty fourth time Berkhamsted’s distinctive, bunkerless 6,683 yard Par 71 golf course – rated amongst England’s Prime 100 tracks – will supply itself as much as a hungry pack of golfers who will anticipate to dominate such an apparently defenceless golf course, far shorter than they often face in elite trendy occasions.
Most will depart dissatisfied. Though it isn’t lengthy, {golfing} connoisseurs have lengthy held Berkhamsted’s golf course in excessive respect for its strategically-placed mounds and densely tree-lined fairways. Because the membership’s Head Greenkeeper Gerald Bruce says: “Each gap right here can beat you up. There isn’t a single weak one.”
This 12 months’s Trophy can be Bruce’s thirty ninth and final, as he retires in Might after virtually 4 many years tending to the golf course. “This piece of land is completely and completely distinctive, and within the early mornings it is likely one of the loveliest golf programs on the earth” he mentioned. “Annually among the greatest golfers within the nation drive residence after enjoying within the Berkhamsted Trophy and ask themselves, why couldn’t I take this course aside?”
The one golfer to come back near dominating Berkhamsted was English worldwide James Claridge who, in April 2023, turned the one winner within the occasion’s historical past to shoot three successive rounds within the 60s, ending with the bottom successful rating to par (-11) in over six many years. “The way in which Berkhamsted performs, with gorse ceaselessly crossing the green, makes you assume defensively however I attempted to bully it a bit. Fortunately it labored!” he mentioned.
PAST WINNERS
Final 12 months’s winner, Yorkshire’s Charlie Daughtrey, managed to win on his first go to to Berkhamsted. “I discovered Berkhamsted to be a really robust take a look at, with the dearth of bunkers that means that you’re typically hitting of one of many numerous fairway and greenside mounds as an alternative” he mentioned. “The greens are actually delicate and run very true, with extra break than you assume.”
Such is the early-season nature of the occasion, Berkhamsted Trophy rivals should be ready to cope with dangerous climate. The occasion switched to a 72-hole format in 2016, having been a 36-hole occasion for a lot of many years, however in every of the final three years the occasion has been curtailed to 3 rounds after heavy rain and generally even snow.
“Enjoying within the Berkhamsted Trophy is commonly a take a look at of character, in addition to {golfing} expertise!” mentioned Dan Blesovsky, who joined the membership as its new Normal Supervisor in late 2024. “Berkhamsted Golf Membership has staged the Trophy 64 instances now, however it will likely be my first so I’m wanting ahead to it tremendously.
“Every April this golf membership steps ahead and affords itself up as a springtime deal with to the nation’s elite golfers. The members, the skilled staff, the greens employees and the membership administration all pull collectively to stage considered one of England’s really traditional novice tournaments, and the Trophy by no means fails to disappoint.
“This 12 months we do hope for good climate so we will see all 4 rounds: a full 36-hole end to the Trophy on the Saturday all the time creates large pleasure. Our report low 72-hole rating is 277 (-7) by Charlie Thornton from Fulford, and if someone hits type like James Claridge did a few years in the past, that might be underneath risk. Hopefully this 12 months we’ll get an exciting end because the solar units on the Saturday night. Whoever lifts the Trophy can have conquered considered one of English golf’s most demanding challenges.”
Blesovsky completed by posing this problem to his members: “In 2025, after 63 years we’re nonetheless searching for solely our second residence winner! Since David Neech gained in 1962, no different Berkhamsted Golf Membership member has ever lifted the Trophy. We have now some very good golfers right here, so possibly that is the 12 months.”
In 2020 the Berkhamsted Trophy turned the primary elite conventional males’s novice golf occasion on the earth to announce a change to a gender-neutral entry coverage.
And in 2026 Berkhamsted Golf Membership will rejoice the Centenary of James Braid’s redesign work, which he carried out together with his work at Gleneagles on the King’s and Queen’s golf programs in thoughts.
The golf course structure has remained largely untouched for the final hundred years, though complete reconditioning work has just lately been carried out leading to Berkhamsted changing into one of many best-conditioned heathland golf programs in England.
Boasting not solely James Braid but additionally Willie Park Jnr. and Harry Colt amongst its architects, Berkhamsted’s golf course is laid out on frequent land inside Hertfordshire’s largest expanse of pure gorse and heather. Over 5 miles of bridleways and pathways run all through the golf course and its 530-acre property, which is filled with pure magnificence.
Located north west of London, near the western boundary of Hertfordshire, Berkhamsted Golf Membership is definitely accessible from the A41, 5 miles west of Hemel Hempstead and simply quarter-hour from M1 Junction 8 (St Albans).
See www.berkhamstedgolfclub.co.uk for all golf membership particulars.
