David Porter will be back at the Municipal Golf Course on Saturday to defend the Southampton Open Championship - which is a huge fillip to the organisers.

The young man who grew up just down the road at Lordshill is the newly-crowned Hampshire, Isle of Wight and Channel Islands champion.

And he's in the mood to keep the Southampton Open trophy in his collection in what will be his last appearance in the prestigious city event.

Porter confirms that he is about to turn professional. He's close to landing a club job where he intends studying for his PGA trainees diploma.

The 20-year-old England international, who plays his golf at the Wellow and Stoneham clubs, admitted: "I don't get a buzz any more from playing amateur golf. I need to have something a bit more tangible to play for."

As an amateur he has travelled the world playing for England junior and senior teams and three years ago he was beating the likes of Nick Dougherty and Zane Scotland for the Carris and McEvoy Trophies, two of England's premier junior events.

His progress through to the senior ranks has been less spectacular but he was certainly back to his old best form at Shanklin & Sandown where he beat Hampshire teammate Chris Page 6&4 in the final of the county championship.

"Chipping and putting have been a problem," said Porter, "but I went over to Shanklin a day early, did some serious practice and it paid off."

Porter's game came good in his quarter-final with Ryan Henley, one of the strong favourites for the title.

And his putter became hot again in the semi-finals when three birdies in a row down the finishing stretch enabled him to overturn a three-hole deficit against Blackmoor's Paul Burgess.

Next year we could see Porter competing on the Hampshire PGA, a prospect which the association welcome.

In the meantime he's got some more big fish to fry at 'The Muni' on Saturday.