‘To take the trophy back to Hayling fills me with pride’ – Hampshire captain Burden after retaining the South East League crown
Hayling’s Toby Burden admitted that beating newly-crowned English County Champions Essex to defend his Hampshire team’s South East League crown was one of the proudest moments of his career.
The county captain spent five years playing as a pro from 2010, trying to make his way to the European Tour before giving up on his childhood dream and returning to the amateur ranks.
In the last eight years, he has won the Hampshire, Isle of Wight and Channel islands Amateur Championship, won the English Champion of Champions tournament – a feat shared by Tommy Fleetwood and Lee Westwood – and claimed back-to-back county strokeplay and Order of Merit titles in 2021 and 2022.
But leading Hampshire to victory over Essex by 71/2-41/2 at Northwood GC, in north west London, last weekend was right up there, having been vice-captain when Hampshre claimed the Daily Telegraph Salver Kent’s Wildernesse GC, a year ago – to mark the end of 11 years without the South East League crown.
Burden took over the captaincy in May when Stoneham’s Lawrence Cherry took a job in Dubai.
He said: “To take the trophy back to Hampshire is a real honour as captain.
“To be able to take it back to Hayling fills me with a great sense of pride. It will be something very special to hang on display for the coming year
“Just as we did before, and after the final 12 months ago, we talked about our friend Keith Maplesden (past Hampshire Golf president and secretary) – we all know he would be incredibly proud of our achievements after his sad passing last summer.
“To defend the title for the first time since 2002 is another great achievement. I love the fact the team are making more history for Hampshire.
“Beating Essex felt really good – we had all the pressure to go back-to-back. They won the English County Championship the previous weekend, so it was up to us to make sure we had some silverware to take home this year (after finishing second to them in the South East Qualifer in July).
“We turned it on, and to beat the reigning English County Champions is such an achievement,” added Burden, who was still on the course when Stoneham’s James Freeman pulled a rabbit out of the hat to claw back a half in the fourth match to get Hampshire over the line.
Burden had just seen opponent Toby Peters make a double-bogey – having had a 50-foot par putt on the 15th – to put him one-up with two to play despite making a bogey of his own after getting blocked out by the trees with his approach shot.
After Hampshire won the morning foursomes 3-1, Essex had levelled by winning the top two singles. But Hampshire were up in three of the remaining six matches.
“Only James Freeman in front of me, and Martin Young in the bottom match, were down by a hole,” said Burden. “But the rain was starting to fall and the light was fading fast, so for me to come off 16 with
a one-hole lead was huge.
“Our coach Kev Flynn was walking the last few holes with me as Rob Wheeler, Tom Robson and Ryan Henley all won to make it 6-3.
“We needed just a half from the last three games. I was about to play my wedge into 17 when Kev said live scoring had just updated – James had won the last for a half, so we were champions.
It was Burden’s fourth final since 2009 – that was tied with Hertfordshire – he has only ended up on the losing side once, against Essex in 2018.
“There’s no better feeling than winning a final,” he declared.