Biagio Andrea Gagliardi was crowned the first ever Brabazon trophy champion after the exciting final day of the Hankley Common Golf Club.
The 18-year-old opened in general -1, two rounds, with two victories over his closest rival Freddie Turnell (Burnham & Berrow), who won George Henriques Salver among GB&I’s under 20 players.
Gagliardi had a great three-thirds in the first nine games of the final day, but saw a three-shot lead in the 10th double bogey and the birdie who played companion Mattias Varjun (Estonia).
However, Valgon’s continuous bogey saw him take a step back as his Italian match partner regained the Birds’ three-shot lead at the age of 13, and despite playing a role at 14, the Orgiata golfer won with his 3-15-shot 4 on 17 with another birdie.
Create history
He said: “I was ecstatic, it was history here. I couldn’t ask for a better game to win. I quickly settled to the last round, which was a good front, but at 10 I probably missed the first drive of the week for the first time and went on a double trend. It was easy to lose it from there, but I quickly recovered, recovered well, recovered a good golf and got some peace of mind and got some wins and got some wins.
“Walking at No. 18 with all the audience, this is probably the best moment of my life.
Burnham & Berrow’s Turnell fought back to back birdies at 13 and 14 and was led by the club on -6 to get him back to compete.
Two early birdies for England Men’s Squad’s Ben Bolton (Enville) saw him challenging for a while but bogeys late on ended his chances of winning, while Australian Kayun Mudadana, who shot from tied-44th to tied-4th on Saturday with his course-record showing of -8, kicked off with a birdie on the final day before a four-hole bogey run all but ended his hopes of lifting the trophy.
Varjun led the way with Eliot Baker (Tiveverton) at -5, the Estonian won a bronze medal on Countback, while another Australian from Billy Dowling took the -4 overall score of -4 in the final round of 69 (-2).
2024 British amateur champion Harley Smith (Rayley) tied for -2 for -3 with Jack McDonald, Bolton and Mudadana tied for -2 for sixth place on -2 as only nine players completed a four-day match under PAR.
The other eight players have a strong lead in the championship, including Dylan Shaw Radford, a member of England’s men’s team. Check out the final rankings here
