Bishop’s Stortford Golf Club member and Bishop’s Stortford High School student Ben Sessions aiming to reach 2024 Justin Rose Telegraph Junior Golf Championship

Ben Sessions could follow in the footsteps of a close friend and fellow Bishop’s Stortford Golf Club member by qualifying for a prestigious international tournament.

The 16-year-old Bishop’s Stortford High School student is aiming to reach the Justin Rose Telegraph Junior Golf Championship - a competition his mate Max Hopkins won at the age of 14 seven years ago.

And Sessions boosted his chances of reaching the event, which takes place at the Quinta do Lago golf resort in Portugal in December, by winning the Motocaddy-sponsored Bishop’s Stortford Golf Club Junior Open, a qualifying event attracting some of the best young golfers from Hertfordshire and Essex.

The top 12 boys with the lowest gross score against the course rating will be invited to attend. In Sessions’ case, his round of 66 is compared to the course rating of 70.7 to give him a score of 4.7. It means he is currently in eighth position on the leaderboard.

Sessions produced a stunning birdie blitz on holes 14, 15 and 16 - his round included just one bogey - to finish five shots clear of runner-up Callum Dargue at the Dunmow Road club.

At one stage it looked like being a very close encounter as Sessions played the front nine in two under par while his Stortford clubmate Dargue was only one shot behind.

Dargue, who attends Birchwood High School, secured a birdie to bring the scores level, but he double bogeyed the 11th as Sessions pulled clear.

In 2017, Hopkins became the youngest boy to win the Telegraph event by carding a two-under-par total of 214 over three rounds at Quinta do Lago in the Algarve.