Hampshire golf veteran Martin Young played a crucial role as the county team were held to their first South East League draw at Brokenhurst Manor for 25 years by Kent Golf

Ringwood’s Martin Young played a crucial role for Hampshire as the county side were held to their first draw at Brokenhurst Manor for 25 years by Kent.

Young has played at least half a dozen out of more than 90 South East League matches he has appeared in for Hampshire over the last 30 years at his home course at Brokenhurst Manor.

In those 12 or so individual foursomes and singles matches, he has rarely lost. But after a shock defeat against Sussex last season in the singles, he was on the receiving end again as Hampshire led the morning foursomes session against Kent in the New Forest on Sunday.

The three-time county champion, who has won the Mike Smith Memorial Trophy against all-comers from southern England seven times since 1991 over the same course, lost 7&5 when he teamed up with Rowlands Castle’s Tom Robson.

It was the only defeat in the morning session for captain Toby Burden’s side as they looked to boost their hopes of reaching a third South East League Final in a row by beating a strong Kent side in the season curtain-raiser.

Young and Robson were left walking in from the 12th after their surprise defeat at the hands of Kent county champion Lee Carew and former England junior international Jacob Kelso in match three.

But a 3&1 win in the top match for North Hants’ former EuroPro Tour player Sam De’ath and former Bramshaw junior Joe Buenfeld levelled the contest.

Hampshire order of merit winner Rob Wheeler, playing with 2021 Mike Smith winner Stuart Archibald, from Test Valley, won the 15th to go five-up against Kent’s Tommy Lamb and Lucas Dennison.

Skipper Burden and Darren Walkley, the winner of the 2015 county championship at Brokenhurst, then wrapped up a 7&5 victory.

From 3-1 up at lunch, Hampshire must have been confident of getting the three-and-a-half points they needed from the eight singles for outright victory.

Young, who has been playing regularly for Hampshire since the mid-1990s, is approaching his 55th birthday, making him eligible for seniors’ golf at the England and county levels.

What he doesn’t know about the subtleties of the greens on the classic Harry Colt course isn’t worth remembering, and there is not a blade of grass, a lie or an angle off the tee or into the greens – let alone a pin placing – he can’t picture with his eyes closed.

He was sent out fifth in the singles, and while De’ath made it two points out of two with another 3&1 win, Buenfeld sent his drive on 18 out of bounds to lose by one in the top match.

A heavy defeat for Robson meant Kent were trailing by just a point. But Young made two birdies on the front nine, having lost the short first to a birdie-three from Lamb.

But it was then Lamb to the slaughter as a series of mistakes gave Young a five-hole lead at the turn, losing three in a row from the sixth.

They shook hands on the 14th as neither player could get up and down for birdie on the driveable par-four.

That extended Hampshire’s lead back to two points before Wheeler got up-and-down for a half from the bunker 30 yards from the pin on the last – having lost his ball off the tee on 17, when one-up – to make it 51/2-31/2.

But Kent were in control lower down the order, and after Walkley was beaten 4&3 in the bottom match, the hosts needed a point from either Archibald or Burden to guarantee victory.

Archibald, who also won the Hampshire Mid-Amateur Championship (Over 35s) at Brokenhurst in 2021, could not make a birdie on the last and lost by one to talented teenager Jake Potter.

Burden saw his 18-foot downhill, par putt stop in the jaws after Kelso’s excellent recovery from the ditch on the 17th meant the hole was halved in bogeys.

And when Kelso’s eight-foot birdie attempt on the last shaved the hole, the Hampshire captain grabbed a half by sinking his six-footer for par to make it 6-6.

It was Hampshire’s first draw at Brokenhurst in more than 25 years, and it means they will probably need to beat both Sussex away and Surrey at home to complete a hat-trick of South Division titles, and their 18th since the competition began back in 1964.