FARNHAM, ENGLAND | Alberto Binaghi learned of Italy’s latest amateur triumph while making his way to the airport.
The final action that the veteran commissioner of the Italian team witnessed firsthand in the 2025 Brabazon Trophy at Hankley Common Golf Club was a missed par putt at the par-3 16th hole by the longtime leader, his latest charge Biagio Andrea Gagliardi.
Binaghi is a measured man, his calm demeanour one of his greatest strengths. But he had closed his eyes to suppress a grimace as the putt slipped by the hole. Reluctantly, he then rounded up Gagliardi’s team-mates, herded them into the team van, and hit the road.
Along the way, those youngsters repeatedly hit the refresh button on their phones, hoping for good news via online scoring, desperate for their friend to maintain his two-shot advantage over the field.
Among them was Michele Ferrero, who knows only too well the difficulties of maintaining a lead in a prestigious event. He won the Italian International Amateur Championship in April, but days later he led the Lytham Trophy deep into the final round only to be blown off course in a cold wind.
His last act before departing for the airport was to fist pump and energise the 18-year-old Gagliardi.
As the van turned away from the course to start its drive to Gatwick, Gagliardi’s own drive at the 395-yard, par-4 17th briefly looked like following them. Far from being errant, however, it was bold, taking an outrageous line over trees and heath before pulling up just short of the green. A chip and a putt later he was three clear.
“Watching” the scoring, the travelling golfers knew nothing of the details, only of the precious extension to the lead. Ditto at the final hole. They knew the bogey-5 was good enough for victory. They may never discover how Gagliardi’s drive was hooked into the trees before he chopped out and played to drop one shot rather than risk losing two or three to the card.
“Alberto arms me for handling different situations. When I had momentum early in my round, I remembered how to hold me to stay calm, stay patient, remain positive, have faith that birdies will come.”
Biagio Andrea Gagliardi
As the van bounced along the motorway Gagliardi was expressing thanks for his team and the officials. They might not have been there in person but they had been with him in spirit and his phone was buzzing away with the proof.
“We all travel as a team, we have a great connection and we’re all rooting for each other,” he said. “Michele has been playing great the whole season and it has inspired us all. It’s so good to see that we are succeeding together.
“The coaches have helped me so much this week. The Under 18 coach Giorgio Grillo has been to so many events with me down the years and today he was on my bag. Alberto caddied for me in the third round. They both kept me calm. But it’s not just this week, they’ve helped me for two years.
Gagliardi’s greatest test in the final round came immediately after the turn, which he had reached with a three-shot lead. One stray tee shot into Hankley Common’s unforgiving heather was, however, all it took to erase the advantage entirely.
“It could have been very easy for me to get out my zone and just lose it,” he said. “But Albert’s teaching, Giorgio’s presence, and the support of my team-mates kept me going.” The latter made plenty of noise when their compatriot’s ball found the putting surface at the 334-yard, par-4 15th in one stunning blow.
He had words, too, for another pair of coaches. The former European Tour pro Alessandro Tadini has been teaching him since he was inspired to take up the game by Tiger Woods aged just 3. “My grandparents didn’t play golf, my parents didn’t play golf, but I saw Tiger on TV and I asked my dad to take me to a course. Alessandro has been with me ever since.”
Meanwhile, a first year at Florida Atlantic University has had a profound effect.
“I’ve grown immensely,” he said. His coach there is Adrien Mörk, a former Challenge Tour pro who carded a 59 in 2006. It was the first in any tournament run by the European Tour.
“He is more like a father figure than a coach and that has been essential. It’s helped me get used to a very new situation because Florida is completely different to my home city of Rome.
“This is my first tournament back in Europe and I feel very tall right now. I couldn’t have asked for a better start to the summer. Next up is St Andrews for the Links Trophy, then the British Amateur Championship, the European Amateur Championship, and then hopefully the European Team Championships as well. That would be so cool.”
The champion’s 8-under total of 276 left him two clear of England’s Freddie Turnell and three ahead of another Englishman, Eliot Baker, and the Estonian Mattias Varjun. It was the latter who briefly caught the Italian on the back nine.
Gagliardi is the first Italian winner of the English Men’s Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship (the Brabazon Trophy’s more long-winded tournament title) and he joins Matteo Manassero in being the only Italian winners of a prestigious men’s amateur event in the United Kingdom (Manassero won the 2009 Amateur Championship).
The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, the primary training facility for British Army officers, is close to Hankley Common and the woods around the course are often used for training courses.
Last week, Italy’s newest golfing recruits were put through their paces within those same trees and Gagliardi passed with flying colours.
E-MAIL MATT
Top: Biagio Andrea Gagliardi credited coaches and team-mates for his Brabazon victory.
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