HAMPSHIRE’S top amateur golfers might be forgiven for being a little sick of the sight of Lincolnshire’s leading lights after last year’s encounters out on the fairways.

First Spalding’s Simon Richardson captured the Selborne Salver, the first trophy awarded as the curtain traditionally goes up on the domestic calendar with the first major 72-hole competition of the new season at Blackmoor, in April.

And 24 hours later Blankney’s Sam Whittaker claimed the glory at North Hants when he became the 49th winner of the Hampshire Hog – a trophy synonymous with 2013 US Open winner Justin Rose, who claimed the silver trophy as a 14-year-old back in 1995.

The pair were also part of the Lincolnshire team that dented Hampshire, Isle of Wight and Channel Islands’ hopes of landing the first English County Championship since a 16-year-old Rose was a member of the winning team back in 1996, when the 2015 finals were played at Crewe’s Wychwood Park, in Cheshire – Hampshire lost 6-3 on the second day before narrowly being beaten by new champions Lancashire.

Corhampton’s Scott Gregory lost 3&2 to Whittaker in the singles, and will be hoping to erase the memory of 2014.

Then, he was leading the Hog with six holes to play when the heavens opened, forcing play to be abandoned and the trophy awarded on the first round score to Devon’s Sam Edwards, who added his name to the trophy alongside a number of Walker Cup players, and Ryder Cup players Steve Richardson, Sandy Lyle and Grand Brand Jnr.

Rose played in both the Walker and Ryder Cups and Gregory will be keen to enhance his international ambitions, having recently lost in the final of the Spanish Amateur Championship in Seville.

He was beaten by British Amateur Champion Romain Langasque, and should be inspired by the Frenchman’s impressive showing at Augusta over the weekend, where he fired off a brilliant 68 on the Sunday to climb up to 39th place although he was denied the medal for leading amateur by impressive American debutant Bryson DeChambeau who was five shots better on five-over par.

The Augusta links to East Hampshire are strong. While Danny Willett, the former World Amateur Number One, never played at Blackmoor because he was on a golf scholarship at Jacksonville State University from 2006-07, the first Yorkshireman to win a Green Jacket came from the same England elite squad set up that has produced many past winners, including Ryder Cup star Ross Fisher (2004), and Walker Cup players Gary Wolstenholme (2001), Jamie Moul (2006), Stiggy Hodgson (2008) and more recently Andy Sullivan (2011) and Matt Fitzpatrick (2012).

Sullivan made his first trip to Augusta this week having won three times on the European Tour in 2015 having turned pro five years ago, while Fitzpatrick impressed many seasoned observers in world golf with his tied seventh place finish on Sunday, as Paul Casey and Rose joined fellow Ryder Cup player Lee Westwood as one of five Englishmen in the top 10 in Georgia.

Willett’s wonderful win should certainly inspire the current crop of leading English amateurs.

England A squad member Gregory will lead the Hampshire charge at both Blackmoor and North Hants, but last year’s county champion Darren Walkley finished sixth on his debut in 2014, just three shots behind Wiltshire’s Walker Cup player Jordan Smith after a sparkling 67 in the second round – a five-shot improvement on his opening 18 holes.

Walkley was unable to match that finishing 40th – with Gregory the highest ranked player in 25th as Richardson ruled on the day.

Darren warmed up for the new season by playing in the Europro Tour Qualifying School – as an amateur – and although he missed the cut at Frilford Heath, his two rounds at the Players Club in Bristol to make it through stage one and last week’s 36 holes on the Oxfordshire heathland course, will have shaken off any competitive rust from the winter.

The 26-year-old, who left his engineering job to take a job in the pro shop at Hayling to support his amateur golf last year, will be defending his Hampshire crown at his home course in just over six weeks’ time – so will be keen to show some form and emulate Mark Thistleton and his boss, current club pro Mark Treleaven, as the third Hayling man to win the competition founded 41 years ago.

The last Hampshire winner of the Selborne Salver was Mark Burgess, the reigning Hampshire Mid-Amateur Champion, who is still the only Blackmoor member to lift the famous trophy with his remarkable win in 2009.

North Hants’ Billy Watson – the latest teenager from the Fleet club to try to match Rose’s success as an amateur – beat the best Hampshire club pro’s to win the Hampshire Open last summer, and will be bidding to be the first host club player since Justin to win the Hog, on Sunday.

But Lincolnshire’s bid to keep their stranglehold on Hampshire’s famous silverware will be boosted by the return of James Crampton, who won the Hog and the Hampshire Salver for the best 72-hole aggregate, back in 2006.

He spends most of his time organising events for the country’s leading amateurs in his job of director of championships at England Golf, but is heading south to take part in the 50th anniversary celebrations.

He will also be bidding to become just the tenth player to win both the Hog and the Salver during their amateur career, the last being Smith, who is now playing on the European Challenge Tour after winning the Europro Tour Championship, in Spain, in October.

The only player to have won both events in the same weekend was J Metcalfe back in 1990.

Spectators are welcome at both Blackmoor and North Hants. Play gets under way in the Salver at 8am with the second round starting at 1.15pm. Free parking at both venues.