HE won’t hit a better putt all year. Thirty-five feet above the flag with a yard of break on Blackmoor’s marble staircase of an 18th green, Jack Singh Brar picked the perfect line and watched as his ball, picking up pace, hit the hole square on and dived into the cup.

The unlikely birdie three, his ninth of a long day at Saturday’s Selborne Salver, gave Singh Brar (Remedy Oak) a level-par 69 to go with his morning 66 to get him into a play-off with Matt Kippen, of Enmore Park, near Bridgwater, who shot 69, 66 for 135. Equal third, on 136, were Jack Haines (Gerrards Cross), on 70, 66, and Ryan Brooks (Whittington Heath), with a brace of 68s.

The play-off, the first in a decade, was soon decided, Singh-Brar hitting his drive a good 300 of the 448 yards of the tough 10th. Kippen hooked into the first cut, nearly 90 yards behind. He made a fine recovery, but was still five yards from the green. Singh Brar coolly pitched to comfortable distance and then watched as his opponent came up six feet short and missed his par putt, leaving the younger man to take the title with a tap-in.

Still only 20, Singh Brar was just 16 when he won the Berkhamsted Trophy and seemed destined for great things. But two lean years followed and only in 2016 did things begin to improve, with 11th spot in the Brabazon Trophy and a quarter-final berth in the English Amateur.

He worked hard over the winter and brought his ‘A’ game to Blackmoor, a course he enjoys. “I always seem to do well here. I’m confident with my driver and once on the greens, I feel I can hole putts because the surfaces are so true.”

In truth, it was his approach shots which won the day, a barrage of laser-like irons, right through the bag, putting him in prime position and taking the bunkers out of play. Typical were the morning and afternoon three-irons into the stiff, chill wind at the 15th, a 200-yarder to test the best. Singh Brar made birdie, par where bogeys were common.

His first round, starting at the 10th, began inauspiciously, with two bogeys. But after that birdie on 15, he made two more, hitting a lob wedge to 12 feet at the 392-yard 16th and draining a 40-footer at the short 17th. Three more followed in his back nine, with a five-iron to five feet at the third, a wedge to a yard at the fifth and a six-iron to 20 feet at the long eighth, where his eagle effort came up just short.

Two over par after five holes of his second round, Singh Brar then birdied the seventh and eighth, but three-putted the short ninth to be out in 36. He parred the next three before birdieing the 512-yard 13th. He bogeyed the 16th after just finding the heather and all but birdied the next, his 20-footer teetering on the lip. The three at the last provided rich compensation, however.

Kippen, 26, who plays off +3 and is a full-time amateur, set out his stall with a fine first round. After lunch, he attacked, picking up strokes at the sixth and eighth, but dropping a shot at the 14th, where he might have expected a three. He then finished with a flourish, birdieing the last three holes for an equal best-of-day 66.

In equal fifth place were Ben Hutchinson (Howley Hall), with 71, 66, and Matthew Jordan (Royal Liverpool) whose 67, 70 tally contained the day’s saddest story. Two under for the round and four under for the day at the 12th, just 129 yards, Jordan was a yard or two long with his tee shot and the ball skittered into the scrub. He escaped, but ran off the front, from where, brain scrambling, he took two more to get to five feet and two more to hole out for a shattering six.

Jordan, winner of the 2016 Hampshire Hog, came to the last needing a three to join the play-off. But his approach was this time a yard short and ran right back off the green to complete his misery with a bogey five.

Josh Hilleard (Farrington), winner of the 2016 Hampshire Salver, was next on level-par 138 (67, 71), while both on 139 with scores of 72, 67 were Joe Long (Lansdown) and Martin Young (Brokenhurst Manor), the Hampshire champion and captain, who was joint best of the home county players with Obediah Ayton (Glen Oak, USA), on 67, 72.

All on 140 were Jason Stokes (La Moye), William Whiteoak (Shipley), Peter Handcock (Harleyford), Cameron Long (Burton-on-Trent), Toby Burden (Hayling), defending champion James Walker (The Oaks) and David Hague (Malton & Norton).

Double Surrey champion David Corben (Hindhead) had a splendid afternoon 67 to card 141, while Colin Roope was best of the Blackmoor players with 70, 72 for 142, a stroke ahead of 2009 Salver winner Mark Burgess, who shot 73, 70.

Simon Richardson, the 2015 champion, carded 72, 71 to match the veterans John Kemp (Woburn) and James Crampton (Spalding), both with 70, 73. Simon Butts (Blackmoor) was round in 71, 74, with clubmate Henry Carter on 76, 72.

Sadly, there was a no-show, and no message, from the hottest amateur golfer in the country, 17-year-old Charlie Strickland (Ham Manor), winner in the previous week of both the Duncan Putter and the McEvoy Trophy.

New putter and caddy does the trick

NOT many golfers would change their putter and hire a new caddy on the eve of an important tournament. But Jake Burnage did and it worked wonderfully well, as he annexed the 61st Hampshire Hog – the second leg of the county’s amateur spring double – at North Hants on Sunday, spreadeagling the field with rounds of 67, 66 to win by five full shots.

Burnage, 21, plays his golf over the mighty Saunton links in North Devon, so the nagging wind was just a gentle breeze to the +3 man, who only took up golf in 2011 and was down to scratch three years later. “I’m used to playing in gales, so it wasn’t too hard. My distance control was good all day and to have a professional caddy on my bag made a massive difference,”

The bagman in question, Rory Brown, a full-time caddy at Sunningdale, was on the Tour for many years, working with the likes of Mark McNulty, Nick Price and Mats Lanner.

In second place, with 70, 68, was Jack Singh Brar, Salver winner of the day before, whose golf was every bit as good as Burnage’s, but without the putts. Indeed, he barely holed one of any length all afternoon, churning out par after par and finding almost every fairway.

A huge drive down the 17th needed just a nine-iron and though he just missed right, he conjured up a birdie four with an exquisite bump-and-run to 18 inches with his rescue.

A four down the last saw him to second place, but winner, by one shot over Burnage, of the Hampshire Salver for combined Hog and Selborne Salver scores.

KIT NEILSON