
Charlie Rusbridge sets his sights on a historic hat-trick
Rusbridge, who prevailed at the stunning Quinta do Lago South Course by an impressive eight shots, will aim to defend his title later this year when it returns to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the boys' event.
'There have been back-to-toback winners, but no one has won it three times in a row, so if I can be the first to do it that would be pretty cool,' he says.
Rusbridge shot a superb 12 under par score as he recorded three rounds in the 60s, watched in the Algarve on the final day by his father Scott, a PGA teaching pro.
'It was really good fun and one of the best organised events I have ever played in,' says Rusbridge, who also won the English Amateur Under-18 title last summer.
'The Am-Am was great too. the whole event ran really smoothly. Dad's been with me pretty much every tournament, and when he saw I was doing nicely he came out,' he adds.
Rusbridge, who turned 17 last month, admits to still being on a high after his Telegraph victory and revealed that Rose handed out some sage words of advice, which have already proved valuable in 2025.
'Justin said to keep working hard and stay patient through the tough times. It was really good advice: to just trust yourself and to know that you have it.
'I haven't started this season off as fast as I wanted, but to know I could do it in December has been a real confidence boost, and just to stay patient and it will come again,' he says.
The Colne Valley golfer has set himself a 'six-year project' after verbally committing to a Florida State University scholarship in 2026. 'I'll turn pro in 2030 once I graduate, so I have five or so years to get ready to go on tour,' he says.
Grace Crawford, who won the girls' event at Quinta do Lago by just two strokes, is one step ahead of Rusbridge and starts her US collegiate golf this year. This means that she can't defend her girls' title in the year the girls' event marks its 35th anniversary this winter.
'To cap off my junior career in that style to win was fantastic,' she says.
The Scot is now based in the Bahamas at the Albany Golf Academy, and her coach Jon Hearn was also coached by Justin Rose himself.
'There were connections and Justin has such a cool legacy, so it was pretty special,' she says. 'I have had some good wins in the past, but this will be remembered.'
Crawford signed off her junior golf career in style by hitting a career-first all greens in regulation en route to victory, and she also relished having the chance to play in front of the Sky Sports cameras and, of course, enjoy the downtime Quinta do Lago.
She says: 'It was such a good week from start to finish. It was a great atmosphere and we were having fun off the course which made it enjoyable. A lot of memories were made.
'The funniest thing was that I saw Justin on the ninth tee on the last round.
'He was messaging my coach during the round, and he then took a video of me talking to Jon on the phone after I won. His embrace at the end was awesome – to have Justin Rose congratulating you on winning his tournament is pretty special, and I will remember [it] for a long time.'
Crawford, who starts at University of Alabama this summer, will play the Helen Holm Scottish Women's Open for the first time since 2022, when she became the first home player to lift the title in 20 years.
'I'm excited to be taking the step into full-time amateur golf,' she adds. 'It may actually be less hectic than junior golf!'
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Michelle Agyemang: How a starry-eyed ball girl grew into England's saviour
Just four years ago, Michelle Agyemang was a 15-year-old ball girl and aspiring striker in Arsenal's academy. Even two weeks ago, her name was relatively unknown. Now, her heroic performances for England in the women's Euro 2025 have propelled her to nationwide stardom. She saved the day with an 81st-minute equaliser in the quarter-final against Sweden, and scored the vital goal that kickstarted England's semi-final comeback against Italy. Agyemang translates to 'saviour of a nation' in Akan Ghanaian culture – and she's truly living up to her name. While her rise from Arsenal academy and England youth player to senior Lioness has been nothing short of meteoric, Agyemang's dedication to football was clear from a young age. 'When she was in year five and six, she would play football on the playground with the boys at lunch time, and she really gave them a run for their money,' recalls Heather Westrop, Agyemang's year six teacher at Holy Cross Primary School in South Ockendon, Essex. 'The boys would come in after lunch and you could see their frustration – they'd be really cross at how good she was!' By the time Agyemang reached year six, she had already been honing her craft for at least five years. Her first taste of club football was with Brandon Groves AFC – a local team in South Ockendon – before she joined Arsenal's academy at the age of six. Her mother was initially keen for Agyemang to pursue ballet and dance rather than football, recalls Cheryl Shead, her reception class teacher. However, after realising her daughter's passion for the sport, her mother supported Agyemang's decision to pursue football. 'I had the pleasure of teaching Michelle PE in year six, but to be honest, it felt like she was teaching me,' Westrop recalls. 'It wasn't just football she excelled at – she was a runner too, and very athletic. Whatever she set her mind to, she achieved and in everything that she did, her determination and perseverance shone through.' Agyemang's enthusiasm wasn't solely reserved for sports and she was also a committed academic. 'She finished year six having passed the 11+ and gained a perfect scaled score of 120 in her grammar, punctuation and spelling SAT. She's one of those people who has it all – but has worked very hard for it,' Westrop says. Whilst Agyemang excelled in both sport and academia, Westrop and Shead say she remained humble and kind-hearted – attributes that have continued to shine through in her recent football performances and post-match interviews. 'She was always very self-confident but she would never want the spotlight,' Westrop recalls. 'Even when she started playing for Arsenal and was travelling for football most nights of the week, it wasn't something she ever bragged about. She was incredibly grounded and I think it's the mindset that her parents instilled in her from a very young age.' Agyemang joined Southend High School for Girls (SHSG) in 2017. News of her Arsenal academy experience spread fast and there was a lot of excitement about the new pupil, recalls Hannah Warner, who was in the year above Agyemang. Warner had been working for a year to set up a girls' football team at her school and, shortly after Agyemang joined, everything fell into place. The school's first girls' football team was launched – with players from years seven and eight – and Warner was the proud captain. 'Over the years, I've played with and against several very proficient and impressive players,' Warner recalls. 'But with Michelle it was different. She was only 11 when I started playing with her but I just knew right away that she was going to make it. There was something about her.' In Agyemang's recent 'super-sub' performances against Sweden and Italy, she was called upon by Sarina Wiegman when England needed her most and delivered both times. Warner believes these last-gasp heroics go all the way back to her high school football days. 'Because of how good she was, the team would obviously look to her if things were going wrong and think 'if anyone's going to save us now, it's going to be her',' she recalls. 'So, in some ways, she's had that kind of pressure on her for a long time and she deals with it very well.' As well as being an excellent goal-scorer, Warner recalls Agyemang being an 'aggressive player' that 'you'd hate to play against, [but she was] the kind of forward that I was so glad to have on my team'. She adds: 'Michelle truly led from the front. When you're that good at finishing, you don't necessarily have to be that good at tracking back but she absolutely was. She didn't sit back and wait for the ball to come to her – she had such a good work ethic.' These skills continue to shine through today. Her physicality has been lauded by her manager and team mates, including Lucy Bronze, who said in a recent interview that 'she just runs into people and bodies them because she's so strong'. Whilst Agyemang didn't tend to train at school due to her commitments with Arsenal, she competed in as many matches as she could, winning tournaments and trophies with her team. 'To be honest, our team had literally just started and we were immediately quite successful and I think a lot of that was down to Michelle,' Warner says. 'From a young age, she was so mature on the pitch and wise beyond her years. The way she led from the front motivated the rest of the team and she pushed everyone else to be better players because of how good she was.' At the age of 15, she was a ball girl at Wembley when Wiegman's England beat Northern Ireland 4-0. A year later in November 2022, she made her senior debut for Arsenal against Leicester City in the Women's Super League. Months after that, she was named in the England squad for the 2023 Under-17 Championship and scored twice against Poland in the first game, giving the team their first goal of the competition within four minutes. Her rise through the international youth ranks was rapid, culminating in her senior England debut in April against Belgium in the Nations League. As fate would have it, she was called into the squad after Alessia Russo was forced to withdraw with an injury. The Lionesses were 3-1 down and just 41 seconds after Agyemang's introduction, she scored her first senior goal – taking one touch to control the ball before a stunning volley beat the keeper. Agyemang's work with the Lionesses in April was enough for Wiegman to select her for her Euro 2025 squad. 'The attributes that make her standout – her goalscoring ability, her strength, her humility – we've seen them for some time in the pathway, and now the whole world is getting to see it as well,' said Emma Coates, an England women's under-23 head coach, in a recent interview. Her powers have certainly captured the attention of her team mates, opponents and the nation. 'It's really well-deserved. I can see how long this moment has been in the making,' Warner says. 'It's not a case of luck – Michelle has worked so hard for this for so many years. Football is my biggest passion so the fact that I've been a part of her journey and also had the chance to play with her is just absolutely amazing.' Everyone at SHSG is 'incredibly proud', says head teacher of The James Hornsby School, Jason Carey. 'Her dedication, resilience and pursuit of excellence were evident even during her time with us. Those qualities have clearly carried through in her sporting career. She remains an inspiration to current and future students, especially young women in sport.' Her first football team, Brandon Groves AFC, are fiercely proud of her too – in fact, they recently visited Agyemang and the Lionesses at St George's Park, the England training ground. 'Michelle took time to speak with all the girls from Brandon Groves. She signed autographs and took selfies with them all too,' says Roy Enright, vice-chair and head of the club's girl's teams. 'It's an inspiration for the girls to see Michelle – who is from the same area and played at the same club – now succeeding with England… It gives us all a great sense of pride and we are wishing her and the Lionesses all the very best for the final.' Many are questioning whether Agyemang will start tomorrow's final as England set out to defend their European title against Spain. Some believe her explosive cameos prove she simply has to be promoted to England's starting XI. However, Wiegman has made just two changes to her starting line-up this tournament, preferring to call upon Agyemang and fellow super-sub Chloe Kelly when their team needs them most. Whatever happens, two things are for certain – she's going to deliver when called upon, and this is still just the beginning of her incredible football journey.


Daily Record
8 hours ago
- Daily Record
Luke Littler on being boring and binning friendships as he walks in Wonderland
The Nuke responds to Gary Anderson words and talks Phil Taylor and scrapped friendships ahead of semi showdown Luke Littler reckons Gary Anderson got it right saying some players are boring as he walks in Phil Taylor's Wonderland. But The Nuke is adamant he'll be feisty as friendship goes right out of the window when he meets Josh Rock in the chase for the darts Triple Crown. Littler came through a contest with quiet-man Andrew Gilding to reach the last four and had time for a cheeky quip afterwards. The Scot had said earlier in the week that a generation of players are dull away from the stage and Littler smiled: 'I don't think he's a big talker, Andrew, a lot of us players, we just got on with our thing and like Gary Anderson said, we're boring, so that's what we do.' Littler is just two games from lifting the Betfred World Matchplay to add to the World Championship and Premier League titles he has already bagged. The teenager admits he thinks about sealing that Triple Crown in Blackpool and said: 'It's going to be on my mind until I win it, but since day one here, you can only beat what's in front of you and you've got to take it game by game. I've said quite a few times, for us players and especially myself, there's not a lot of time to look back on what I've done, but I know deep down what I have done in the past and what I've done leading up to now, and long may it continue.' Littler got a famous chant directed to him towards the end of the Gilding game and it struck a chord. For over two decades, the song about Walking in Phil Taylor's Wonderland reverberated around the Winter Gardens as The Power controlled the tournament. That's now changed to Littler's Wonderland and he said: 'It means everything, I'm pretty sure it first started at my first World Championships, but just hearing the song and, obviously, after a great legend that Phil is, he's been here plenty of times, won it 16, and I'm really looking forward to the semi-final.' Littler found the right rhythm to beat methodical Gilding and explained: 'The game with me and Jermaine [Wattimena], we get on with it, we're both quick players, but when you're playing someone like Andrew, he's not going to change for anyone, no matter who you are, he'll always do the same thing, throw by throw, dart by dart. 'But I just had to get myself into a rhythm, not throw it too quick, not throw it too slow, I think I pulled a fair few darts into the ones and the small 20s throughout that game, but the cover shots were there for me.' Litter now meets his mate Rock in the semis and said: 'Josh has been on the tour for many years, been on the youth tour for many years, we've been good friends now for quite a while. He's been playing really good darts for quite a few months. 'Rab Bain, his manager, he's got quite a few plays with Target and then we all go to a Target day, we all meet up, speak to each other and that's how it [friendship] comes about. I don't think it really matters who you play, whether you're friends or not, because as soon as you're on the stage, you're no-one's friend, you're there to do a job.'


The Guardian
8 hours ago
- The Guardian
‘She's an inspiration to the youngsters': the rapid rise of Michelle Agyemang
Four years ago, Michelle Agyemang was a ballgirl at Wembley stadium, witnessing the Lionesses' rule the pitch in a 4-0 victory against Northern Ireland. Now, at just 19 years old, she no longer finds herself retrieving balls that have veered out of play, but is an integral part of the team she once admired from the sidelines. The forward, who football fans hope will be showing off her on-pitch magic on Sunday as the Lionesses' face off against Spain in the Euros 2025 final, began her journey to the top of the sport in her Essex home town of South Ockendon. It all started at Brandon Groves AFC in 2011, where a five-year-old Agyemang took her first steps into the sport. She was talented, determined and, at the time, the only girl at the club, which has run in the area for 29 years. She played there for two seasons before being picked up by the Arsenal Academy. Colin Burnham, a coach at the club, called her success 'fantastic'. He told ITV News: 'She's an inspiration to some of the youngsters we've got here at the moment. It's nice to say that from grassroots level you can still go somewhere with football.' He said 'the players and the kids' will be watching the final where, they hope, celebration will be abound. 'Hopefully she'll come and visit us so we can celebrate personally with her,' he said. Another club representative said it felt 'amazing knowing we have a Lioness playing in the Euros', adding they were 'proud to say Michelle started at our club'. In April, she was called upon to join the Lionesses' after Alessia Russo suffered an injury. This is when her journey to the top of the sport really took off. She scored three goals in her first four England caps, including equalisers in the last two Euros matches. Her talents are not only athletic. She is also studying business management at King's College London, as part of its sport and wellness programme. She was 'brought up on gospel music' and is a keen piano-player. So keen, in fact, that after England's win against Sweden, she had it brought over. 'The kitman brought it over in a van. It's calm and relaxing,' she said. 'Lotte [Wubben-Moy, her Arsenal and England teammate] asked me to play for her – she came to my room and I played a few things for her, which was nice.' Sign up to Moving the Goalposts No topic is too small or too big for us to cover as we deliver a twice-weekly roundup of the wonderful world of women's football after newsletter promotion It isn't only fellow teammates lining up to sing Agyemang's praises. Jason Carey, headteacher at Southend High School for Girls, where the footballer was a student, said: 'We are incredibly proud of Michelle. To see a former Southend High School for Girls student reach the highest levels of international sport is something truly special. Her dedication, resilience and pursuit of excellence were evident even during her time with us. 'Those qualities have clearly carried through in her sporting career. She remains an inspiration to current and future students, especially young women in sport. We can't wait now for the final.' As Sunday approaches, home town glory is heating up in South Ockendon. In the Knight of Aveley pub, posters are plastered on the wall calling on locals to 'get down and cheer on Michelle', who they called their 'very own South Ockendon girl'.