PhD student beats former champion to win county title
AMI Storey, from Blyth, beat reigning champion Rosie Belsham in the final of the 2018 Ladies County Golf Championships to claim the title of county champion for the sixth time.
In a tightly fought match played at Bedlingtonshire Golf Club, 16-year-old Rosie – who is in the middle of her GCSE exams – held Ami off until the 17th hole.
Ami, 29, a plus-one handicapper who is currently finishing a PhD at Aston University, said: “I don’t play a lot of golf now but this is my flagship event of the year.
“I’ve taken a week off my job and studies to be here.”
The event was characterised by an influx of new young talent, not least a first appearance by 11-year-old Maggie Whitehead, who shot a 75 (net 68) on the first morning of stroke play and followed it up with a 79 in the afternoon, winning the Connie Burton Salver and seeing her handicap cut from 7.1 to 5.5. Maggie said she “just came to learn and see how the best players in the county play” – but ended up qualifying in sixth place for the match-play rounds and went all the way to the quarter-final before being beaten by Rebecca Ferguson from Tynemouth.
Rachel Gourley, 13, also got through to the semi-finals.
Ami, who spent three years in America on a golf scholarship, said: “It was a great experience to see the wealth of talent coming through the Northumberland County system. They all have bags of potential and just need experience now.”