SEAN BYRNE has maintained Hampshire's superb recent record in junior golf by earning a call up for the England under-16 team to play Scotland at Drumoig on October 3.

The 16-year-old Meon Valley champion follows Justin Rose and David Porter into the international ranks. Now he hopes to emulate his two county role models by winning a trophy or two.

Byrne, incredibly, has only been playing golf for five years. Encouraged by his father Sean who is an eight handicapper, he joined Meon Valley's junior section as an all 11-year-old and within a year had halved his original handicap of 28.

"I think I've about halved my handicap each year I've played," said Byrne, who now plays off one and who last year became the youngest ever winner of the Meon Valley Club Championship, a title he has successfully defended this summer.

He first caught the selectors eye with third place in the English Boys Under-14 Championship at Porters Park last year.

In June he was second to Porter in the Hampshire Boys and Youth Championships at Royal Winchester and achieved top 20 finishes in the national McEvoy (under-18) and McGregor Trophy (under-16) competitions in which he was 17th and 12th respectively.

But the performance which really got him noticed was a thumping 5 & 3 victory over Scottish under-18 international Stuart Armstrong in the first round of the British Boys under-18 Championship.

Byrne went out in the second round but there was no disgrace in that. He took Jamie Elson to the 17th before succuming 3&1. The week before Elson had reached the semi-finals of the English Matchplay Championship.

Denmead-based Byrne had just left college and plans to take a year out to work on his golf, his target to make the national under-18 squad in which his friend and county rival Porter is already a permanent fixture.

Byrne is coached at Meon Valley by one of the game's finest teachers John Stirling who encourages the youngster to harness his natural attributes as a golfer.

Stirling's advice and the lessons he learned at an England Boy's training get-together last winter (he has another one this winter) have produced a young player of genuine potential whose aim is to get down to scratch before the year is out.

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