DARREN Walkley will go into a head-to-head battle to land his second Hampshire Order of Merit title in a row when the final strokeplay event of the county amateur season is decided on Sunday as Corhampton hosts the Courage Trophy.

While the club set up on downland overlooking Bishop's Waltham, will be hoping England A player Scott Gregory can claim the silverware in front of the clubs' watching members, the race to win the Tony Cullen Quaich should come down to either Hayling's Walkley – last year's inaugural winner – or North Hants' in-form Billy Watson.

The teenager who is starting to be compared to North Hants' last young prodigy – one Justin Rose - won the Hampshire Open, beating the county's leading club professionals as well as some of the leading amateurs at Arlesford in July, and then took the Solent Salver for the best 72-hole aggregate in the Mike Smith Memorial Tournament at Brokenhurst Manor, and the Stoneham Trophy, last month.

Walkley was fourth in both the Mike Smith and the Stoneham, which was good enough to earn him third spot in the Solent Salver.

But despite the carrot dangled in front of him this weekend, Walkley's gaze is fixed firmly on playing the 36 holes at Corhampton on Sunday.

He said: It would of obviously be great to win the Hampshire Golf Union's Order of Merit two years running but I'm just focused on trying to win the courage and he rest will handle itself.

Having won his first Hampshire, Isle of Wight and Channel Islands Amateur Championship at Brokenhurst, in June, it should not be a surprise to see Walkley's name at the top of the current Order of Merit Rankings, with a 7.66 point lead – but the points from the county championship were awarded for the qualifying scores - not the matchplay section, where he eventually beat Rowlands Castle's Tom Robson to land the Sloane Stanley Challenge Trophy.

Darren added: “I don't like to look to far ahead as I've been making changes to my game all year!

“But I am hitting it good at the moment so I'll just get there and if you drive good around Corhampton you can really make some birdies and shoot a low score.”

Having finished fourth in qualifying in the New Forest, Walkley is also in the running to land the Cole Scuttle – for the best 72-hole aggregate in the county championship and the Courage Trophy.

He needs to finish at least one shot better than Sandford Springs' Chris Blunden and Shanklin and Sandown's in-form Jordan Sundborg, who was leading points scorer at the English Boys Final last week, and who reached the quarter-finals of the British Boys Championship at Royal Birkdale three weeks ago, knocking out England No. 1 junior Bradley Moore in the process.

Brokenhurst Manor's Martin Young, who shot a course record equalling 63 on his way to claiming the Mike Smith title, is one shot behind Walkley in the race for the Cole Scuttle with Haydn Reay, from Army GC, also one shot back.

Darren has been paired with Sundborg for both rounds of the Courage so he should have a pretty good idea of where he stands in that race come Sunday.

But before that he and a number of the other players in the field are competing for the Addison Bowl, at his home club Hayling on Saturday, with the invited clubs sending three players with a maximum handicap of eight, and with all three nett scores counting.

Walkley is playing alongside last year's Solent Salver winner Ben Wall, and club stalwart Kevin Hickman.

He warmed up for this weekend's action with a practice round at Corhampton, playing with Walker Cup player Neil Raymond, who has since turned pro and plays on the European Challenge Tour.

Raymond won the Courage at Hockley in 2008 as he broke in the Hampshire first team and the pair were joined by two-time Courage winner Tim Markwick, who now works as a tour rep for Puma.

Darren said: “I shot three under - it was the first time I have ever played at Corhampton and managed seven birdies in all. If I can learn from the mistakes I made it should be a very good game on Sunday.”

Gregory joined Corhampton after making a name for himself as one of the county's leading juniors. The Hampshire Boys Championship was played there in 2013 - the year after he turned 18.

But he is also in decent form having finished fourth in the European Amateur Championship last month, in Slovakia, and having retained the Stoneham Trophy, his big breakthrough victory last year just two weeks after he lost in the final of the English Amateur at Saunton, in Devon.