This year the Gog Magog Golf Club celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Lagonda Trophy. It was initially played at Camberley Heath Golf Club from 1975 to 1989 and the sale of the Club initiated a move to the Gog Magog Golf Club in 1990.

The founder and sponsor Clive Smith passed away last October. He was and will continue to be sadly missed, but it was great to see his partner Janet and also Clive’s closest friends Mike and Heather Walsh with their daughter Lucy supporting the tournament.

As usual there was a high class field of 66 competitors with the ballot falling at plus 2.1.

The competitors and club members were boosted by a video from our Ryder Cup Captain Luke Donald, who won the Lagonda Trophy back in 1997. His inspirational words about how the win in this tournament was a launchpad in his career early on, and a stepping stone in his journey from amateur golf into the professional ranks.

The first shots of the 50th Lagonda Trophy were struck at 7:20am in sunny, windy conditions, to the relief of the competitors, who had been treated to steady rain during the previous day’s practice round.

Considering the dry Spring, the Old Course was in superb condition, thanks to the hard work put in by Andrew Howarth and his team. The greens were true and running well on the stimp meter and the rough, although not as high as previous years, was certainly going to be testing.

It was great to see the defending champion Brandon Skidmore of the Cotswold Hills Golf club returning to defend his trophy. Brandon had only just returned from his college in the USA on the day before the practice round. There were also a number of other USA college students playing in this special Lagonda Trophy.

The best round in the morning was by Joseph Buenfeld from the Stoneham Golf Club in Hampshire. Joseph had the perfect start with birdie 3s at the first two holes and raced to the turn in 31 strokes. Steady golf on the way home saw him return an excellent 66 and the 1st round lead.

Lying ominously one stroke back, was our defending champion Brandon who returned 67 which included 6 birdies. Altogether 10 players broke par in the opening round in testing conditions. This included Oliver Allison of the Colchester Golf Club, who for the 3rd year running broke par in the opening round with a 69. He previously led the tournament in 2023 with a 67 and led in 2024 with a 64.

The wind abated slightly in the afternoon and naturally the scores improved with 21 players breaking the par of 70. The best round came from Toby Peters of the Thorpe Hall Golf Club in Essex who improved his 1st round score by nine strokes with a 65 which included 6 birdies and an eagle at the 8th hole.

Brandon Skidmore went one better in the afternoon with a superb 66 which was bogey free and he shared the lead with our 1st round leader Joseph Buenfeld who added a 67. They led on 133, one stroke ahead of Joshua Rudkin of the Cosby Golf Club who had rounds of 68 and 66 for 134.

A welcome sight during the morning of the 2nd day was the arrival of Clive’s vintage 1930 Lagonda Tourer car which stood proudly by the 18th green.

The start of the 3rd round saw a strong wind blowing across the course, which was certainly going to be a more testing day than the opening day.

However, this didn’t phase local player Danny Loveday of the St Neots Golf Club, the current Cambridgeshire County  Champion. He raced to the turn in an amazing 30 strokes in difficult conditions. He further improved his score to 7 under, stood on the 16th tee. Unfortunately, after bunker trouble he had a double bogey but still managed to hold his round together to return a magnificent 65 and move up into contention on 2 under par. Last year, Danny was only one stroke back of the leaders after day one.

The tough conditions were felt by our two leaders as they both struggled around the course in 74 strokes, Brandon falling foul of the difficult 12th hole where he made a triple bogey and Joseph having 6 bogeys in his round. The only other players to beat par were Toby Peters with a 69 to further improve his position, and Henry Styles of the Romford Golf Club who with rounds of 68, 68, 69 took a 2 strokes lead of the tournament on 205.

The final round was again played in very gusty conditions as Henry Styles raced into a 4 stroke lead after reaching the turn in 34 strokes. His opponents, bringing up the rear, were both struggling with Skidmore having 3 bogeys and Buenfeld a 7 on the easy 8th hole.

They all birdied the drivable par 4 but Henry suffered dropped strokes on holes 11,12,15 and a double bogey 6 on the 16th hole saw him lose his lead to Joseph Buenfeld. Joseph navigated the back nine with further birdies at the 14th and 15th holes and took the lead on the 16th hole with a fine par into the wind. Brandon fell one stroke behind his playing partner with a bogey 5.

Henry completed his round by dropping another stroke on the final hole for a 1 under total of 279.

So, it was all down to our leader Joseph on 3 under and Brandon on 2 under with 2 holes to play. Sadly, our leader dropped a shot at the 17th hole compared with Brandon’s par and so they were both level playing the final hole of the tournament.

Joseph hit his drive into the right hand rough and could only hack it out to 10 yds short of the green. Brandon hit a wonderful iron to around 15 feet. Sadly for Joseph, his chip came up well short and he lipped out for his par. Brandon now needed 2 putts to win the 50th Lagonda trophy. He rolled his 1st putt up to 15 inches and tapped in to become the only golfer in the 50 year history of the Tournament to successfully defend his title.

The iconic trophy and silver goblet memento was presented to our worthy winner Brandon Skidmore by Clive’s best friend Mike Walsh, after an excellent speech from the Captain, Mark Spears.

Our sincere thanks go to the late Clive Smith, the founder and sponsor of the Lagonda Trophy, who without his foresight back in 1975, this great tournament would never have taken place.

Our thanks go to all the competitors for making the 50th Lagonda Trophy so special.

To all of the club members who gave up their time to help run the event, including the ball spotters, live scorers, recorders, referees, starters, office staff, green staff, catering staff, professional staff, a huge thank you from the Tournament Chairman Neil Hughes.

All scores and statistics for each hole can be found on the Gog Magog website.

A gallery of wonderful photographs can be found at the website of Kevin Diss Photography.

List of Prize Winners

1st Brandon Skidmore 67,66,74,71 = 278 (Cotswold Hills GC)

2nd Joseph Buenfeld 279 (Stoneham GC)

3rd Henry Styles 279 (Romford GC)

4th Oliver Martin 280 (Sand Martins GC)

5th Toby Peters 281 (Thorpe Hall GC)

6th Danny Loveday 281 (St Neots GC)

7th Joshua Rudkin 281 (Cosby GC)

8th Levi Desmond 282 (Sudbrook Moor GC)