BASINGSTOKE Golf Club’s Charlie Forster picked up his first win in the UK this season last week, claiming the Peter Alliss Memorial Trophy at the legendary commentator’s Hindhead GC.

Last month, Forster, who reached the last four of the 2022 English Amateur Championship at Lindrick, came close to winning the Berkshire Trophy - one of England’s top three 72-hole strokeplay tournaments for the second year in a row.

One bad hole in the fourth round - a triple bogey eight at the ninth on the Ascot club’s Red course, left him two shots behind eventual winners Max Berriford, from Yorkshire and Somerset’s Freddie Turnell.

But at the Surrey club where Alliss was a member for more than 30 years up until his death in December 2020, Forster claimed his first win on UK soil since winning the South of England Boys Open in August 2021, his last season as a junior.

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Charlie, who celebrated his first victory in his second season playing college golf in the US for Southeastern Louisiana back in September, was delighted to get the win under his belt after that near miss at The Berkshire.

The 20-year-old said: “It felt good to get one over the line. I have been knocking on the door for a while both in England and my last few events in the States, and it’s going to give me a lot of confidence for the future.

“I’ve managed to carry over my form from America. I struggled with consistency in the past but I’ve managed to figure out the things I have to work on to make me play well and be more consistent.

“I think my overall confidence has improved, I’ve changed to a more aggressive approach off the tee and since then have played much better.”

Indeed, after that victory in the SIUE Derek Dolence Invitational, Forster racked up a string of impressive results in his sophomore season.

He was third in the Gulf Coast Collegiate in February, and then produced two more top 10s in the Colin Montgomerie Invitational and The Big Texan in the space of a month, with an11th place finish in the Tunica National Intercollegiate a week later.

And for a second year in a row, he came close to grabbing the Southlands Conference Championship - the end of year tournament that decides who goes to the NCAA Regional Finals.

Last year he was pipped by fellow Hampshire team-mate Joe Buenfeld, the former European Junior Open winner, from Bramshaw, while this year he was six shots behind South African Stefan Jacobs, at the end of April.

Charlie admitted: “It’s hard to win in college golf, There are a lot of players who on their day can shoot very low scores.

“So to beat them feels very good. Forster’s stellar season could have been even better as he was on course for back-to-back wins until he was forced to disqualify himself when leading for a rules infringement.

Charlie said: “I was leading the next event through 27 holes - but I noticed I had left both my four-irons in the bag - so I had 15 clubs when 14 is the limit.

“So I had to call the penalty on myself, having signed for a wrong score in the first round. It was a pretty rough feeling, but it’s a big lesson I have learned the hard way - I check my bag before every round now.”

Forster was unlucky not to make his first final in last month’s Hampshire, Isle of Wight and Channel Islands Amateur Championship, losing to former pro Darren Walkley in a high-quality semi-final.

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Charlie, who won the Hampshire Junior Championship and the South West English Schools in 2021, is looking forward to trying to shoot Hampshire to their English County Finals in six years, when the team travels to Surrey’s Farleigh Court GC on Saturday.

Charlie is excited by Hampshire’s prospects. He said: “We’ve won our first two league games of the season, coming from behind to beat Sussex 8-4 away.

“Those performances prove how deep and talented we are as a team and I think a win at the Six-man is definitely well within our reach.”