FORMER Saints defender and Hockley member has pulled off one of the biggest shocks in county golf over the last 20 years by winning the Courage title.

Telfer, who has been a self-confessed golf nut since hanging up his boots – produced the “best 36 holes of his life” to claim the county strokeplay championship, which dates back to 1963.

The first ever Courage Trophy was presented by three-time Open winner Sir Henry Cotton at Bournemouth’s Queens Park GC back in 1963 when Brockenhurst Manor’s John Brander claimed the new trophy, bearing the brewing giants’ name.

A delighted Telfer said: “I qualified in 16th place at the county championship at Army GC, in 2019, and then in the matchplay, I beat Conor Richards, who had won the Pechell Salver for finishing first in the county championship qualifier the day before.

“But Toby took me apart in the afternoon’s quarter-final, I have always said any time I can finish ahead of the likes of Martin Young, Ryan Henley, and Toby, I must have played well.

“I take my hat off to those guys. I can play a bit, but they are so good and deserve the coverage because of how good they are. I played the best 36-holes ever in my life. No question.

“I know the Army’s head greenkeeper Phil Wentworth very well – been mates with him for years, so I know the course well and enjoy playing here.


“It was really firm and fast out there. It was in fact much more like a links course than a parkland track. You had to pitch the ball quite a way short on some of the holes and let the ball run out on the greens.

“‘I think some of the guys really struggled with that. I had been back up to Scotland in the last couple of weeks and played Luffness, Archerfield and Gullane.

“They are all top links courses that have hosted big professional events. I think that helped get my game ready for the challenge here. I played the course as if it was a links."

Telfer beat a field containing nearly all of the UK-based members of Toby Burden’s Hampshire first-team squad. He was the last man standing with North Hants’ Rob Wheeler leading in the clubhouse on level par.

The latter had bounced back from a first-round 74 to shoot an excellent 68, having won the Army’s Bren Gun Open back in June.

The 22 year old was the favourite to claim the Courage, which would also almost certainly guarantee he would win his first Cullen Quaich for topping the Hampshire Golf Order of Merit.

But Telfer, who has shown a liking for the Laffans Road course in the past, had other ideas.

Playing with former Hampshire Mid-Amateur Champion Mark Burgess on the other side of the course to Wheeler, the former Saints defender turned in two-under par after lunch.

After a first-round 71 had left him as the surprise leader on level par, Telfer made five birdies and a bogey in his four-under par 67.