Bishop’s Stortford’s Ben Sessions finishes third in English Boys Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship at Luffenham Heath
Ben Sessions had his worst round of the week as he finished third by just two shots in the English Boys Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship on Friday (July 25).
The 17-year-old Bishop’s Stortford Golf Club member went into the fourth and final round at Luffenham Heath with a three-shot lead after shooting a 68, a course-record 63 and another 68 on the par 70 in Rutland to sit 11 under in pursuit of the Carris Trophy and follow in the footsteps of major winners Justin Rose and Sandy Lyle.
On Wednesday, Sessions broke the course record of 64 that had stood for 35 years to lead by three at the halfway stage. But he held that honour for less than 24 hours after Irish teenager John Doyle shot a 62 on Thursday.
Sessions and Doyle were the final pairing on Friday – but it was French teenager Callixte Alzas who pipped them both to the title with a five-under round of 65 that included six birdies.
He finished with a total of 271 – one clear of Doyle (272), who was level par on the day, and two clear of Sessions (273).
The Bishop’s Stortford High School student’s three-shot lead had vanished by the third hole as he bogeyed the first and third while Doyle birdied the second. Sessions had three more bogeys and only one birdie overall in his final round of 74.
The Carris Trophy, which was first contested in 1935, is open to golfers aged under 18 on the 1 January of the year of the championship. It is deemed the best ranked under 18 boys’ event in Europe following the R&A Boys’ Amateur Championship, which this year will take place in County Louth, Ireland, in August.
Major winners Sandy Lyle (1975) and Justin Rose (1995) secured the trophy 20 years apart.
Sessions went into the championship as the South East of England under-18 boys’ champion after winning that title in a play-off on his home course in Stortford on May 30.
In April, he achieved the rare feat of recording a 10-under-par round of 63 as he finished second in the Southern Section of the Faldo Series competition for under-21s at Brocket Hall in Welwyn Garden City.
Last December he recovered from a disappointing first round to finish fourth in the Justin Rose Telegraph Junior Golf Championship, the unofficial major of junior golf, at Quinta do Lago in Portugal.
That came three months after Sessions contributed two singles victories on his England debut to help the mixed under-16s team triumph in their annual fixture against Ireland.