JOHN Moore, the new Hampshire Golf president, hopes to see his other role at the county golf union bear fruit over the next two seasons.

The former Blackmoor Golf Club captain has managed Hampshire’s junior programme for four years and the conveyor-belt of talent shows little sign of slowing down.

Hampshire produced the youngest ever English Amateur Champion in nearly a century of the country’s blue riband event when 16-year-old Harry Ellis, from Meon Valley G&CC, broke Nick Faldo’s record of having won the title aged 18 back in 1975.

Scott Gregory has blossomed from being a member of the 2012 team that reached the English Boys final to breaking into the Hampshire men’s team, reaching the English Amateur final two years ago at the age of 19.

Rowlands Castle’s Billy McKenzie, also a member of that team, won the prestigious Berkshire Trophy last summer, having made great strides in his first two seasons at William Woods University in Missouri, where he won the Phil Mickelson award as the most outstanding freshman in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.

And last season, another Meon Valley teenager, George Saunders, the reigning Hampshire U16 champion, was called up to play for England U16s against Wales, having finished third in the Sir Henry Cooper Masters at Nizels in Kent.

That event clashed with Hampshire’s third appearance in the English Boys final and John Moore’s young proteges had to settle for third place at Kings Lynn in Norfolk.

However, the recent pool of the county’s U18 players is arguably stronger than when the likes of Justin Rose, David Porter – both winners of the Carris Trophy in the late 1990s – and Darren Wright, who claimed the same England U18 Championship in 2000, were crowned England number one.

Shanklin & Sandown’s Jordan Sundborg caused one of the upsets of last year by beating England No 1 junior Bradley Moore in the fourth round of the British Boys at Royal Birkdale, before losing in the quarter-finals, and the South West Schools champion went on to play for England Schools against Scotland at Troon Darley.

Sundborg also broke into the Hampshire first team and was unbeaten in his two Daily Telegraph South-East League matches. He broke the Corhampton course record with a superb 63 in the second round of the Courage Trophy, when the curtain came down on the Hampshire Order of Merit in September.

Isle of Wight clubmate Conor Richards finished second in the British Schools and College National Finals at St Andrews and took the Hampshire Junior title at Hockley.

The pair will certainly be contenders for the Harry Vardon Trophy, awarded to the U18 player of the year at this weekend’s Hampshire Junior AGM at South Winchester GC, when the two Junior Order of Merit winners – Stoneham’s Lawrence Cherry, the Hampshire Boys captain, and Oak Park’s Christian Lindgreen – will also be presented with their prizes.

John Moore can look forward to the current crop of teenage talent knocking on the door of new county captain Martin Young, increasing the competition for places in both the Hampshire six-man team for the South-East qualifiers, held in July, and the eight-man Daily Telegraph League side.

Having seen the county reach the English Finals five times in nine years, Moore and Young hope to finally get their hands on the national trophy which that has eluded Hampshire every time bar once they have qualified – when Justin Rose was a 16-year-old member back in 1996.

John Moore will be officiating at the ceremony which will also be attended by Liphook GC’s Barry Morgan, the man he has succeeded as Hampshire president.

Moore is carrying on for one more season as Hampshire junior manager, but the day-to-day running of the U18 squad is being handed over to Mike Gregory – father of England A squad player Scott – who has spent the last decade either watching, supporting or helping the county’s juniors, having been U14 manager in recent seasons.

John Moore said: “I would like to thank all the boys who have played for me over the past six or seven years. It has been a pleasure working with them and I wish them all the best of luck in which ever path they take in golf.”

ANDREW GRIFFIN