WHEN Sergio Garcia captured the British Boys' Championship at Saunton in 1977, he was 17 years old. Pablo Martin, who won the title at Ganton on Saturday, is only 15 - and his future looks very bright. Indeed, the future of Spanish golf has a glittering look about it.

They brought 36 fine players to Ganton and two of them reached the final. Two English boys did themselves credit in reaching the semi-finals, but neither James Heath, from Surrey, nor Chris Clarke, of Yorkshire, could break the Spanish stranglehold.

Some believe the British are suffering from overkill. The boys' Home Internationals are played in the week before this event. That meant Heath had teed up for 13 matches in just over a week.

There is no getting away, though, from the fact that Spain is bursting with outstanding talent. Martin was thought of as just a good prospect before Ganton; certainly not good enough to beat Rafael Cabrera, 17, recognised as the Spanish No 1 junior.

Yet that is what he did on Saturday - and it was no fluke. Neither played to his full potential in the first 18 holes of a cat-and-mouse final that sometimes took on the pace of a Spanish siesta in a four-hour morning round.

After lunch the pace quickened, with Cabrera quickly taking a two-hole lead, but Martin never lost his cool. His putter suddenly took on a magical air and, by the 15th, he was two ahead. Cabrera's head was starting to drop. The boy who had won the Young Masters title in Italy handed over to a new young master.

Former British Amateur champion Stephen Dodd narrowly missed a 15ft eagle putt on the last at Slieve Russell yesterday that would have taken him into a play-off with West of Ireland Open winner, Tobias Dier of Germany.

Dodd birdied the last two holes for a 69. But the German closed with a birdie for a 71 to total 17-under-par 271.

Karine Icher claimed her first professional victory in the Palmerston German Open at the Sporting Club in Berlin.

The Frenchwoman, 22, clinched the £14,000 prize by a shot from Norway's Suzann Pettersen. Britain's Nicola Moult was third.

Kelly Robbins bogeyed the last two holes to fall into a tie for the lead with Swedish superstar Annika Sorenstam after three rounds of the inaugural Canadian Women's Open in Ontario.

Stephen East claimed the British Mid-Amateur Championship at Seaton Carew with a 6 and 5 win over Scotland's Jim McGroarty after a rain-interrupted final.

American David Oakley picked up his first title of the year in the £225,000 Energis Senior Masters at Wentworth yesterday.