Rebecca Earl earns spurs as teenager joins Hume and Hewson as Herts’ champions

HERTFORDSHIRE’S Rebecca Earl survived a late scare to claim the first international title of her career at the English Women’s Open Amateur Strokeplay Championship, at Ipswich Golf Club.

Earl becomes the second Hertfordshire played to lift one of England Golf’s major women trophies this season.

She follows in the footsteps of Mill Green’s Ellen Hume, who beat Essex’s Lily May Humphreys in the final to win the English Women’s Amateur Championship, at Saunton, back in May.

And Alice Hewson became just the fourth player to be crowned European Ladies Amateur Championship, at Parkstone, in Dorset, in July.

The 19-year-old, from Bishops Stortford Golf Club, bogeyed the last for a one-over par 73.

She then faced an anxious wait to see if Whitley Bay’s Rosie Belsham could catch her at Purdis Heath.

But in the end her two-under par total proved to be enough to give her a one-shot victory.

Belsham, Stoke by Nayland’s Lily May Humphreys, Scotland’s Shannon McWilliam and Kent’s Sharna Dutrieux, from Wrotham Heath, tied for second.

Humphreys, who made the short trip from her home club to Ipswich GC, mounted a late charge in a bid to add to the Welsh and Irish Women’s Strokeplay titles she won earlier in the season.

But in the end a birdie at the last for a 68 was not quite enough.

Earl returns to USA with a victory

BELSHAM knew she needed to birdie the last to take Earl into a play-off, but it was not to be as she carded a 74.

“I’m shocked really,” said Earl, who is about to go back for her second year at Wofford College, in South Carolina.

“I hit a few loose drives out there and found a bit of trouble, but my putting kept me in it.

“The short 15th was a good example of that. I missed the green from the tee but then holed out from about 30 feet for a two.

“On the long 17th I hit my drive into the deep round on the right and then my second into the rough on the left but I got it out to about 25-feet and holed that for another birdie. I guess it was my day.

“On the last I found a greenside bunker,” Earl added. “I got it out to about six-feet but couldn’t get it to drop.

“That meant I had to wait to see what Rosie did behind me before I knew I had won.”

Belsham won the Fairhaven Trophy earlier this season.

•Past winners who have graduated to the LET and LPGA include Charley Hull ((2011), Jodie Ewart – the last player to win back-to-back, Sophie Walker (2003) and Yorkshire’s Rebecca Hudson (2000).

Trish Johnson, who went on to record 19 LET victories and three on the LPGA, was the second-ever winner in 1985.