By Amanda Little

Published at 11:22, Wednesday, 19 November 2008

GOLF'S a generation game for the Johnstone family.

Winning line-up: scotby’s Neville Johnstone and his two sons Carl, centre, and Ben

Former county star Neville Johnstone and his two sons Carl, 15, and Ben, 12, are celebrating an incredible hat-trick.

Neville, 43, won the Brampton Club Championship for an eighth time when he defeated current county player Geoff Nixon 2&1.

Not to be out-done by their dad, Carl defeated fellow teenager James Willis to win Carlisle's Junior Scratch Championship and Ben won the Carlisle Junior Handicap Championship after beating Mike Bell in the final.

Ben, who has a handicap of 24, took the scalp of his big brother Carl, a four-handicapper who has represented Cumbria juniors, on his way to the final.

Both boys attend Brampton's William Howard School and are shaping up to be every bit as good as Neville, who was a regular in the county team and has in the past won both the Cumbria Matchplay Championship and the Cumbria Master golfer crown.

Neville, who runs Scotby Post Office and shop, said: "It must be quite unique for the three of us to all win championships. The boys are over the moon!

"The youngest one has really got into golf over the summer - and I can't keep him away from the golf course now. They're both really enjoying it."

Earlier this year, Carl equalled the Carlisle course record with a sensational six-under-par round of 65 in the President’s Medal Qualifier competition, earning him his first and, so far, only cap for the Cumbria junior team.

Neville's Brampton Club Championship victory extended his stranglehold on the event for which he now holds the record. The previous record was six.

He played 65 times for the Cumbria men’s team, and was County Matchplay Champion twice and Cumbria Master Golfer on two occasions.

County captain Cliff Heath is trying to lure him out of retirement to rejoin the Cumbria set-up next year.

Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk