Chedhomme gets full 'tour pro' experience in Spain

Guernsey’s own Hampshire under-18 champion registered an impressive top-35 finish at the Alcaidesa Golf Resort out of more than 115 qualifiers in the boys’ tournament, which was played over five rounds with the top 70 making the cut for the final 18 holes.

‘It was definitely worth the wait. It was an experience I will not forget, that’s for sure,’ said 18-year-old Chedhomme, who qualified for the finals over a year ago but saw them postponed from February due to the pandemic.

‘After we’ve been waiting for 10 months, it was nice to finally go out and play somewhere new and experience an environment that was up to the most professional I’ve ever been among.’

The tournament was held over the two resort courses – the Links and the Heathland, which both had pars of 74 for competition – with competitors playing two rounds over both with their best two scores of the four counting for the cut.

Chedhomme progressed thanks to scores of 78 and 81 before he returned an excellent 76 on the fifth and final day for a final score of 235, 13 strokes behind the eventual winner Luke Metcalf.

‘The courses were both really impressive, in pristine condition and the greens were running very quick. Both were fairly open courses so you could see where you were going, but they were long tracks,’ said Chedhomme, whose dad Christophe caddied for him.

‘The links was the slightly more sheltered of the two, the heathland was more exposed and I had one of my worst scores in a long time on that one.

‘It was end of season here and with the weather not being good recently, it was difficult to get into the best shape with my golf game going into it, but apart from that one bad round, I was pleased with the performances I gave on courses which I had never seen before.

‘It was around the greens I lost most of my shots just because of how quick they were – ridiculously fast really, but it was nice to play on greens that quick and experience what the pros have to contend with week in, week out.

‘But that was part of the whole thing – they wanted to give you the feeling of what it’s like on tour for a week.’

Sky Sports camera crews were out and about on the course to film the action and Chedhomme also had the chance to meet former European Tour player now presenter Nick Dougherty as part of the experience.

‘It was amazing. He comes across as quite a relaxed person on TV and you wonder if he is going to be like that off camera, but he is completely the same.

‘He is very open, it was nice to have a chat with him and we were talking about things other than golf too.’

Chedhomme will keep his golf ticking over in the next few months by playing in the Royal Guernsey winter league, but his main aim for next year is making the men’s team for the Guernsey 2023 NatWest International Island Games.