Blackmoor Golf Club
Oliver Toyer Wins the Selborne Salver
Ignorance certainly proved bliss for young Oliver Toyer at Blackmoor on Saturday when the +3 handicapper from the St Neots club in Cambridgeshire breezed round in scores of 66, 69 to win the 2024 Selborne Salver 36-holes scratch golf competition by a single shot.
Toyer, who only turned 17 in December, had never even set eyes on the course, let alone played it, when he arrived on the first tee with his father and coach, Paul, the St Neots professional, on his bag. 'I'd heard that the fairways were a bit narrow, and I do hit it pretty straight, so I told myself to just enjoy it and accept whatever happened.'
And plenty did happen. On a glorious but breezy spring day and the Harry Colt course looking its best in memory, he racked up five birdies and dropped only two shots in his morning round. Level at the turn, with a birdie at the long eighth, he added four more in the back nine, wedging to six feet at the short 12th and hitting a hybrid to 30 feet at the par-five 13th.
For good measure, he made it three on the bounce at the next, courtesy of a 10-footer and finished in style with a 9-iron to 15 feet for another three at the last. He managed to match par after lunch, again birdieing the long eighth and 13th and making a fine two with a
12-footer at the tough 197-yard 15th. But he dropped shots at the sixth, 10th and 17th for a two-round score of 135 to become the youngest winner since Matt Fitzpatrick in 2012.
Toyer, currently a BTech & Business student at Comberton College, Cambridgeshire, took up the game aged five with a handicap of 45. A dozen years on, he is in his county's first team and the England Boys' Squad. Sadly, he will almost certainly not be defending his new title as he has won a golf scholarship to Kansas State University, in the USA, starting in September.
A shot adrift of Toyer with two resolute rounds of 68 was Jack Drury, the +3 man from Stratford-on-Avon, a stroke clear of Freddie Turnell (Burnham & Berrow), with 69, 68, on countback from Darren Walkley (Liphook), who lost in a play-off last year to Zac Little, now on the golf team at the University of Central Arkansas.
Matching Walkley on level par 138 was Royal Lytham's Jamie van Wyk, whose afternoon 72 was six more than his splendid morning 66. Charlie Croker (Abridge), with 72, 67 and George Saunders (Liphook), with 70, 69, were joint sixth along with Henry Hayward (Kedlestone Park), who shot 69, 70 and Blackmoor's own James Hollis, a one-handicapper in a field of 40 +4 men, who carded a best-of-day 65 in his morning round, which was embellished with a tap-in eagle three at the long eighth.
Making up the top ten on 140 were Rory Browne (Feldon Valley) and Nicholas Wall (Sunningdale), with two Hants players, Robert Wheeler (North Hants) and Stuart Archibald (Test Valley), both next on 141. Hayling's Toby Burden shot a brace of 71s, with Brokenhurst Manor's Martin Young, oldest man in the field at 53, rolling back the years with 70, 73. And Hockley's Luke Hodgetts, a surprise winner of the 2022 Salver, shot 75, 72, with the 2009 champion winner Mark Burgess one back on 72, 76.
Joe Jones (Langland Bay), the +6 man from Wales, found Blackmoor's slim fairways far too claustrophobic and struggled to a morning 78. But he gradually got the hand of it, recovering manfully to an afternoon 72.
For more information on the Selborne Salver and Blackmoor Golf Club, contact Simon Burton on 01420 472775, email secretary@blackmoorgolf.co.uk, or visit www.blackmoorgolf.co.uk
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