Huddersfield GC’s Dylan Shaw-Radford wins English Boys title

The 16-year-old carded two excellent rounds of 70 and 71 on the Hotchkin Course at Woodhall Spa to see off 29 fellow champions from rival counties around England.

Shaw-Radford’s winning total of five under par gave him victory by two shots from his closest challenger, Warwickshire’s Seb Cave.

The youngster from Huddersfield Golf Club becomes the third player from Yorkshire to win the title – following in the footsteps of current European Tour star Matt Fitzpatrick and 2021 Walker Cup player Ben Schmidt.

After joining such illustrious company, Shaw-Radford said: “I hope I can go on and do what they have done – that would be nice.”

On a perfect day for scoring at the home of England Golf, Shaw-Radford held a two-shot lead after 18 holes thanks to a three-under par round featuring 13 pars, four birdies and just a solitary bogey.

Cave threatened to peg him back in the afternoon, but consecutive birdies on the 35th and 36th holes from Shaw-Radford meant his rival needed to eagle the par five 18th to force a play-off.

Despite finding a greenside bunker in two, Cave was unable to produce the miracle shot from the sand made heavy by torrential Friday afternoon rain and the title went the way of the Yorkshireman.

“I kept it in play off the tee and tried to hit a lot of fairways and managed to do that and shoot nice scores,” said the winner when asked what was key to his win.

“I had a feeling someone would shoot a low one in the afternoon and I knew I had to go under par again. I tried to extend the lead.

“I didn’t look at my phone so I only knew how close it was when my mum told me after the round.”

Lancashire’s Andrew Haswell finished in third place behind Shaw-Radford and Cave after bouncing back from a three over par 76 in the morning to shoot a best-of-the-day round of 68 and propel his name back up the leaderboard.