The Royal Guernsey Golf Club will host the 122nd edition of the Hampshire, Isle of Wight and Channel Islands Amateur Championship in June 2027 and it will be the seventh time the event, which began in 1894, has been staged in the island.
‘Royal Guernsey Golf Club are excited at the return of Hampshire’s top amateur golfers for the 2027 Championship,’ said current vice-captain Neil Tanguy, who will be the club captain next year.
‘It is an honour to host these elite players at L’Ancresse and we look forward to seeing a good contingent of the regions top golfing talent.
‘It will be nice to see our top local golfers competing at the highest level and on our own course, perhaps with a local winner, but above all a great spectacle of quality competitive golf on our beautiful links course is eagerly anticipated,’ added Tanguy, who is also the general manager of Golf Course Management.
The last time the championship was held at L’Ancresse in 2007, home player Steve Mahy enjoyed a superb run to the final before succumbing to Ryan Henley as the Stoneham star won the second of his four Hampshire titles having also beaten Danny Blondel in the semi-finals.
‘I remember I played very poorly in the first round of qualifying, I think I shot a 77, and I went to Chris Douglas, who was the pro at the time, and said “can I have 10 minutes, you have to give me something because I need to get back in the tournament”,’ said Mahy.
‘He saw me hit just two or three shots, said “you’re not doing anything majorly wrong, you’re swinging well”, and that just gave me some confidence and I went out and shot a 68 to qualify for the matchplay.’
Mahy overcame two familiar foes in Jerseymen Richard Ramskill and Alex Guelpa in the first two rounds of the knockout stage before taking out a young Toby Burden, who has gone on to become one of Hampshire’s top players for many years, in the last four.
‘My one regret was I came off after the semi-final and it was like my final – I was quite emotional to have made the final and it was almost like it does not really matter what happens now.
‘I would have been 33 at the time, and I have said before that Ryan Henley was probably the best amateur I’ve ever played, but you have to back yourself and my big regret of that whole week was that I did not go into that final in the right frame of mind,’ said Mahy, whose father Roy had also been a county championship runner-up over his home links back in 1967.
Guernsey have not had a winner of the county crown since Bobby Eggo claimed the second of his two titles in 1986.
The only other Sarnian to have emerged victorious was Reuben Mahy back in 1962 at Grouville, but Steve Mahy believes home advantage might help see a Sarnian crowned next June having just witnessed Jayden Tucknott and Lewis Marley reach the knockout stages of this year’s edition last weekend at Brokenhurst Manor.
‘It’s nice it’s coming back here, the course is in great nick and is a great asset to the island, so hopefully the weather is good and we can show it off,’ Mahy said.
‘We have got plenty of guys who would go in for it and a few of them certainly have a chance of winning.
‘Playing against the top guys from Hampshire just shows where you are in the pecking order. It’s that old adage of being a big fish in a small pond here, then when you get to county level you are one of many big fishes.
‘You go in wondering if you are good enough to compete, and the top Hampshire guys are obviously very good, but there is nothing to be afraid of, especially on your home course.’
