TEENAGER Izzy Turner carried off the Hereford Times bowl for best nett score when Kington Golf Club hosted the Herefordshire Ladies Amateur Golf Championship.

The highest golf course in England saw the biggest turn out for the championship in the past five years, as 80 women battled the elements as well as their fellow competitors to claim the title.

“I’ve never had to play in anything like that,” explained Turner, who is just 14.

“I was out early this morning and we certainly caught the worst of it but I enjoyed the challenge and luckily for me I managed to shoot a great score.

"It’s a fantastic feeling to have been able to play against some great experienced golfers and to have won the nett competition is brilliant.”

Turner is one of the youngest ever winners at the championships and after securing the first major win of her career is looking on to bigger and better things.

“I’m aiming to do well in a few more of the bigger competitions, using today as springboard really," she said. "From there to get into some more county competitions and who knows hopefully a few England ones if I keep playing to the best of my ability.”

One of the experienced players that Turner beat in the nett competition was the overall winner of the competition Karen Darby, who had nothing but praise for the youngster.

“She was fantastic today and showed a lot of us oldies how to play and especially going out first in those awful conditions," she said.

"She certainly showed that there is a lot of potential there and is definitely someone I look forward to playing in future competitions.”

With the reigning gross champion Helen Palmer not in attendance, it was left to Darby to win the competition for the first time since 2011.

“I’m very glad to have come through that today,” explained Darby. “It’s great to get my hands on the trophy again.

"Obviously I would have liked to have beaten Helen to do it but the girls out there didn’t give it away and I had to battle hard to make sure of the win.”

Darby was fortunate to have the best of the day’s weather by going off in the last group and, as she explained, that was definitely to her advantage.

“They do the start times by your handicap score so it’s just pot luck as to whether going off last, as I did, gives you the better of the weather as it did today," she said.

"It certainly helped me today, there’s no doubt about that, I don’t think I would have shot low enough to have won if it had been the other way round that’s for sure.”

The tournament, which is hosted at a different venue every year, was one of the closest in recent years and host captain Bee Baxendale was extremely pleased to have been able to host such a high calibre contest.

“We have been very lucky to have been chosen to host the championship this time round and despite all the hard work that goes into it it’s been a very enjoyable process," she said.

"To get as many ladies here as we have today is just testament to the appeal that our course has and hopefully it will be the first of many big events to be held at Kington.”