Hampshire Hog

The existence of the club became more widely known when the Hampshire Hog Open Amateur Competition was started in 1957.

Its list of winners has included many of the finest names in amateur golf including many Walker Cup golfers.

Michael Bonallack won the opening event and he returned 22 years later to win again. Later winners have included two true long-term amateurs in English golf, Peter McEvoy and Gary Wolstenholme. During the first fifteen years competitors were often mature amateur golfers who were or who later became internationals representing England, Scotland or Wales.

The seventies saw the start of the domination of the event by younger golfers for whom amateur golf was a time to develop skills, which enabled them to progress to a professional career. Carl Mason and Sandy Lyle were both 19 years old when they won and were about to transfer to the professional arena. Sandy Lyle, Gordon Brand Jr. and Steven Richardson, all became Ryder Cup golfers.

Several members of North Hants Golf Club have won the Hampshire Hog. Col. Tony Duncan won in 1959 with a score of 145 and Maj. David Blair won the trophy three times, with his best score of 139, in 1970. Tim Koch de Gooreynd won in 1965 with a winning score of 142.

Justin Rose won in 1995, when he was a 14-year-old junior member of the club, with a record winning score of 134, which included a new course record of 65 in the afternoon round. In 1997 he was a close second to Gary Wolstenholme who won in the play off at the first extra hole. He became the youngest ever golfer to play for Great Britain and Ireland in the Walker Cup in 1997 and achieved wider public fame when he finished fourth in the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale in 1998 as a 17-year-old amateur.

The results of the Hampshire Hog have usually been close and particularly in the last fifteen years when the overall standard of the entry has been so high. In its history over forty-nine years there have been six ties and eighteen wins by a single shot. Sudden death has only once extended beyond the first two holes, in 1996 when four extra holes were required.

The record score for the two rounds of the Hampshire Hog stands at 134 set by Justin Rose in 1995 and equaled by Phillip Rowe in 1998. The amateur course record stands at 65 also set by Justin Rose in 1995 and later equaled by Chris Rogers in 1999.

The course was changed in 2000-01, with the second, third and fourth holes being redesigned. The current record holder is Gary Wolstenholme who won in 2002 with two rounds of 66 setting the amateur course record and the current record for the two rounds of the Hampshire Hog at 132.