YOUNG players from Teignmouth and Stover Golf Clubs were amongst those who succeeded at the Devon Golf Amateur Championships.

Taking place between Friday, May 15 and Sunday 17, the best golfers from across the country were battling it out at Royal North Devon.

For the men, it was a 36-hole stroke play event on the first day with a field of 50+ then being reduced to 16 ahead of the weekend’s knockout competition, the top eight going for the Amateur Championship and the next eight for the Wish Plater Salver.

Meanwhile for the women, they played 36 holes on Saturday ahead of Sunday’s knockout tussle, eight advancing split equally between the Amateur Championship and the Lloyd Williams Salver.

Susie Carr (Teignmouth) and Archie Christophers (Stover) led the women’s and men’s table respectively after 18 holes and they were able to maintain this advantage to both take home the gold medals.

Starting with Susie and she was neck-and-neck with fellow Teignmouth member Hannah Reynolds at the turn, tied on 76.

She then followed this up with a score of 79 in the second round to take the title, finishing three shots ahead of Okehampton’s Abigail Turner (158) and four of RND’s Elizabeth Bird (159).

Hannah was able to get her revenge over Susie by beating her on Sunday 5&4, booking her spot in the knockout final where she faced Elizabeth, who won 4&3 in the semi-finals against Abigail.

In a tightly contested affair, played in challenging conditions, home advantage paid dividends for Elizabeth as she overcame Hannah 4&2.

Regardless of the outcome in the final, both Susie and Hannah represented Teignmouth really well on the big stage.

Stover Golf Club were having their flag flown too as Archie Christophers played great golf to earn the gold medal before advancing deep in the weekend’s proceedings.

A first-round score of 71 gave Archie a commanding lead and as the conditions worsened later in the day, he carded 79 to take the win, one shot ahead of both Alex Gibson (Tiverton) and Leigh Jones (Teignmouth).

Archie told the Mid-Devon Advertiser that he “didn’t have any massive expectations” for the stroke play but that he “seemed to settle down early” on in the competition.

He cited a ‘positive mentality’ as a decisive factor in his game, knowing that “everyone is fighting against the same conditions.”

This initial success gave him the top seed for the knockout and his first opponent was Harrison Thorne (Torquay).

Getting off to “a bit of a flyer,” Archie took the lead but Harrison fought back. An eagle two which Archie credited in part to his caddy Chris Greenberry proved to be another turning point and from there he went on to win 4&3.

The quarters and then the semis were on a knife-edge and Archie “knew it was never going to be easy” as he crossed paths with Torquay’s Will Farley, a former EuroPro player.

Archie was one-hole ahead standing on the 18th tee and he held his nerve to book a semi-final clash with Lee Marels (Dartmouth), someone who he knows already through the county team.

Honesty helped and perhaps battling against the golfing gods didn’t, but Archie moved onto the final all the same by winning 2&1.

Young Harry Cann awaited Archie in the final and once more, this match really could have gone either way.

He “got off to a good start” yet again but it wasn’t to be, Archie admitting that he was “Massively disappointed coming off of the course, knowing it was my errors that that lost me the game.

“However, if I was offered that weekend on the Friday morning I would’ve been stupid to refuse it.”

Archie went on to congratulate Harry on the 1-up win before adding: “After some life-changing health issues back in 2023, it’s nice to see my golf game is trending in the right way after a couple of mediocre seasons.”

Congratulations again to Susie, Archie and all others involved at Royal North Devon.