JESSICA HALLL will never forget the week she took her first GCSE exam because it arrived just a day after she had tamed the test of Barnard Castle by retaining the Durham County Championship crown.

Just 24 hours after emerging with a 5&4 victory over close friend Alexandra Stevenson in the final, Hall was sitting down with her exam papers with the aim of stepping up to college in September to start her next chapter in golf.

“It was English Language, I think it went OK, and I want to go to Durham Sixth Form to study as part of its golf academy probably on a BTEC sport course,” said Hall. “To get on to that course I have to get five GCSES, including English and Maths, so I know how important all of my exams are coming up.”

Hall had a history exam yesterday, just a couple of days after going down in the record books for keeping the Ladies’ County Championship title for a second year in a row.

Just 12 months ago she became the youngest winner of the trophy in the competition’s 92 years at the age of 15 years and two months – and she has followed that up with an equally memorable win over the Bank Holiday weekend.

“This is my final year at (Barnard Castle) School so I am putting golf on hold now until after my GCSEs have finished, my focus has to be on the exams,” said Hall, who also finished 23rd at the Irish Girls Strokeplay Championship last month.

“But it was nice to go in to my first exam after winning on Monday because Sunday’s play had to be abandoned because of the weather. It was not ideal but worth it in the end.”

Hall, from Witton-le-Wear, showed all of her class and delivered in style to highlight why she has got her handicap down to just 1.8. She qualified for the knock-out stages with an impressive two-over par total after two rounds of strokeplay.

That earned a bye in round one of matchplay and her 8&7 triumph over Emma Martin teed up a semi-final shoot-out with Bishop Auckland team-mate Briony Bayles. The 15-year-old pushed Hall all of the way but the latter eventually progressed courtesy of winning on the 18th hole.

Hall faced Beamish Park’s Stevenson in the final. “It was strange because Alex and I are really good friends,” she said. “It was quite hard to play her in the final because we play together all of the time, we travel away to national tournaments together and often room together.

“We did not really talk all the way round when normally we would be laughing and joking together. It’s a really strong friendship though. It just felt strange to be competing against each other. It was a nice feeling to win for the second year in a row. I finished really strongly, with birdie, birdie, eagle.”

Both teenagers also share the same coach, Brian Ridley of Beamish Park Academy, and he has improved Hall’s chipping this year which proved decisive at Barnard Castle last weekend.

If she can achieve the marks she seeks in her exams over the next few weeks, she hopes to combine her results with her golfing talent to make progress towards joining the likes of Jodi Ewart and Ellie Givens on Tour after, possibly, a stint at university in America.

Hall, who started playing golf aged seven after caddying for her father Graham, said: “It’s great what Ellie and Jodi have done and that’s where I would like to get to, but I also look up to someone like Ian Poulter ... I like his approach to the game, which also explains some of the clothes I wear when I play golf!”