The Royal Guernsey Golf Club member’s outstanding three-under-par opening round 67 in Friday’s 36-hole qualifier at Brokenhurst Manor won him the Hunt Salver for the best 18 holes by an under-21 player in the competition.
The 19-year-old carded six birdies in his morning outing, which was only bettered before lunch by North Hants GC’s James Adkins, who shot a 66.
Tucknott only missed out on the U21 Youths Championship on countback as his afternoon round of 72 saw him finish on the same 139 aggregate as Charlie Preston from Hartley Wintney GC, who took the title thanks to his second round of 70.
Preston would go on to get the better of Tucknott in the matchplay stages, but not before the Sarnian had convincingly beaten Luke Evans 5 & 4 in the last 16 having qualified as the fifth seed.
However, fourth seed Preston, who had seen off James Knight in the first round of the knockout, got off to a flier in their quarter-final on Saturday afternoon as three birdies in the opening four holes put him 3 up against Tucknott, who had done nothing wrong in those early exchanges.
The Guernsey player fought back to narrow the deficit to just one hole by the turn, but having doubled his lead once more through the first four holes of the back nine, Preston finished things off in style with back-to-back birdies for a 4 & 3 victory.
Lewis Marley also made it through to the matchplay stages after finishing the strokeplay qualifier on an aggregate of 144, which included a fine opening round of 69 that contained two birdies and an eagle.
As the last of the 16 qualifiers, though, last year’s Island champion had to face top seed and defending champion Joe Buenfeld in the first round of matchplay and the RGGC man was beaten 6 & 4.
Two other Guernsey youngsters, Tanner Austin and Noah Davy, also entered the championship, scoring 151 and 159 in the qualifier respectively.
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