JUNIORS

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JUNIORS

Junior Christmas Stableford Competition

Date: Monday 21st December 2009
Tee off: 9.30am First Group-Yellow Tees for boys
Entry Sheet: On the Junior Notice Board or email me [see below]
Entry Fee: £2.50 [pay on the day in the Pro Shop]
Presentation of prizes: In the clubhouse afterwards.

This competition is Open to all Juniors whether you have a handicap or not so come along and join in the fun. You will still have a chance of winning a prize so come along and make some new friends.

JUNIOR CHRISTMAS SOCIAL EVENING

TUESDAY 22nd December at 7pm-10pm
Come along and join in the fun and bring your parents, brothers, sisters, grannies and grand-dads, friends.

We'll be playing Bingo as well as having a long overdue get-together.

Look for the sheet on the notice board and let me know how many are coming in your group. You can also email me on
juniors.gggc@hotmail.co.uk

I look forward to seeing many of you on the 21st and the 22nd December.

Bob Blair 08/12/2009

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Geewon wins Order of Merit title
Congratulations to Geewon Park who has won the inaugural L+R Golf Union Girls Order of Merit. The title is played for over 10 Junior Open events during the season with the best 8 scores counting for each competitor. This title follows on from Geewon's victory in the L+R County Girls Championship [nett] earlier in the year. Well done Geewon.

Luke Atkins just misses out
Although Kilworth Springs remains Luke's home club he has been a regular at GGGC this year where he has made many new friends. Luke finished runner up in the Boys [Gross] Order of Merit, a fantastic performance. Well done Luke.

Ashley and Callum have respectable finishes in Order of Merit
Our two low handicappers did us proud in the Boys Gross Order of Merit. Ashley finished 4th and Callum 8th. Very creditable performances from both boys. I'm sure that had Ashley's golfing calendar not been so clogged that he would have done even better. Next year could be very interesting.

Bob Blair 08/11/2009

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Congratulations to Thomas Carruthers who beat Ashley Kirby 3 and 2 in the final of the Junior Summer Knockout Trophy for 29-54 Handicaps. This Final was delayed until after the Trophy Supper and AGM.
The presentation of the Trophy and prizes will be November. I had the pleasure of refereeing this one and both boys played some outstanding golf with Thomas's short game being the deciding factor.

Bob Blair 26/10/2009

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Result of delayed Junior Handicap Cup

An excellent turn out saw some cracking scoring and a first major for Ben Packwood. The competition was played on Friday 23rd October.
Here are the full results:

Overall winner-Ben Packwood 92-27= nett 65

Div One [0-28 handicaps]
1st Geewon Park - Nett 66
2nd Rick Hickman - Nett 71 [olr]
3rd Rebecca Hovell - Nett 71 [olr]

Div Two [29-54 Handicaps]
1st Jack Hancock - Nett 63
2nd Nicholas Kee - Nett 68
3rd Fame Grayson - Nett 70 [olr]

Best Gross - Callum Blair 71

Congratulations to all the above. The presentation will take place in November. All prize winners will be notified in due course.

Bob Blair 26/10/2009

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Congratulations to Rebecca Hovell who won the British Colleges Sports, East Midlands Qualifier at Morley Hayes GC in Derbyshire on Wed 7th October. Rebecca goes forward to the National Finals next year and gets to spend a week on a residential course at Loughborough University. Well done.

Bob Blair 09/10/2009

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At the Junior AGM and Trophy Presentation Supper on 1st October 2009 the inaugural Glen Gorse Junior Golfer of the Year Trophy was presented to Ashley Mason, a very worthy winner. Here are the four nominations.

Geewon Park Geewon came to GGGC in April this year on recommendation of Lee Skidmore, our former assistant pro and her regular teacher.
She was previously a member at Whetstone - She came with 26 handicap. Geewon has won the Leics and Rutland Girls Open [nett prize] held at Kirby Muxloe in July. A great honour for her and this club.
She was the overall winner of The GGGC Junior Open in July with a nett 64.
She has consistently done well in many open comps around the county and currently sits at the head of the Girls Order of Merit - The final event is at Forest Hill GC in October.
She has also made her debut in the Junior Team.
Her handicap is now 18

Jonny Davies Jonny has come down from 30 to 9 this year. Dominic, our professional, actually nominated him as 'the one to watch' in April this year.
He has consistently picked up junior prizes and in one Weekly Monday medal shot 75 gross off 13.[nett 62]
Once he got to 12 handicap he qualified to play in and win men's comps. He and your new junior captain shot a memorable 72 gross nett 64.5 to win the Battle of Britain Trophy in Sept. This is a 4somes comp [alternate shots] They won by 6 clear shots.
Only last weekend Jonny won Professionals Day with 43 pts and found himself in single figures for the first time.
Jonny has also made his debut for the County Boys Under 14s as well as playing regularly for the GGGC Junior Team.
Jonny lost to Ashley in the final of the Matchplay Championship. A terrific match that went to the 18th hole.

Callum Blair Has continued to represent the County Boys under 18 team and shown what an excellent match player he is despite struggling earlier in the year to get his handicap down off 5.
He is currently on 3.6 and eyeing up 3 before the end of the year. He appears to have mastered the art of putting in a good medal card. He recently shot 68 gross [nett 63 ]to win the Monday medal by a street.
He then went on to win the following week as well with another fine rd for his 3rd weekly medal win of the year.
Callum has won the Junior Club Championship [36 hole Gross] for the first time.
He won the Battle of Britain Trophy with Jonny Davies and has now gone on to win two major men's trophies in the space of 4 days.
He won the Summer Knockout on Thurs 17th Sept beating the Under 35 Capt Chris Hewitt 2 and 1 in the final.
On Sun 20th he won the Middleton Cup 36 hole final beating Rich Harris 7 and 6.
This is a Scratch competition i.e. no handicaps. On route to the final Callum beat Ashley and Ben Jacobs, amongst others.

Ashley Mason [The winner]

as a Junior he

has Won the County Boys Matchplay at Birstall
been a regular member of the County under 18s who won the Anglian League
has scored the best gross in the Boys Age group champs at Scraptoft with a 67
currently lies 3rd in the County Boys Order of Merit
finished 3rd in the Midland Boys Champs at Kidderminster
Won the Ian Poulter Invitational tournament at Woburn with a course record 68 on the Marquess Course, beating 59 of the top Juniors in the Country
Won his first Glen Gorse honours Board comp lifting the Halle Cup with Thomas Carruthers
Won his second board comp beating Jonny Davies in the matchplay championship

as a senior playing in men's events he has

Won the Glen Gorse Club Championship and become the youngest ever winner
come 2nd in the county amateur champ at Cosby
come 3rd in the Leicestershire Fox at Willesley Park
lost in the semi final of the Wykes Bowl, Leicestershire's premier matchplay event
got himself to 2nd place in the Men's Order of Merit-
finished 2nd in The Woolaton Stag
finished 8th in the Lincolnshire Poacher
finished in the top 20 of the Midlands Men's Order of merit

Ashley's current playing handicap is Scratch[+-.1]. He started on 1.5, went out to 2.1 and then bounced back with a vengeance.

A tremendous year for Ashley. He is a superb representative of all that's good about Junior Golf at Glen Gorse.

Bob Blair

JUNIOR ORGANISER'S ANNUAL REPORT - DATED 1ST OCTOBER 2009

I have thoroughly enjoyed my first year as Junior Organiser. I have to say though that when I took over the role I did not quite envisage the amount of work that I would be putting in. As a consequence my own golf game has not been quite as sharp as it was last year. I have even resorted to the odd 4 putt in major competition as my son Callum will testify to.
You could say that I threw myself wholeheartedly into the Junior Organiser role and it's been an interesting and rewarding 12 months. I was, and still am, determined to make the very best of what I am doing and not to let anyone down. So I have no intention of giving up the position.

My first job was to set up a personal email address for parents and some Trusted older Juniors.
I needed a way of getting information out to you all quickly and to receive your feedback and I needed to be able to do this from the comfort of my own home.
I needed to give you all a way of contacting me to discuss anything that was on your mind.
I even had some business cards made up-all very professional you understand although I get paid nothing for for being the 'godfather' as one parent referred to me as.

I wanted to have a more personable way of managing Junior issues, like competition entries, results, handicap revisions, upcoming events and even finding out your choice of meal for Trophy Supper night.

I now have over 50 families on my email list who I am in regular contact with. I think they would all agree that this has worked very well.
You may be interested to know that several other Junior Organisers who I have related the idea to have now started up their own 'parents forum'. It's catching on big style and it all started right here.

A point on Junior behaviour-
The Junior Section at this Golf Club have not let me down once this year. Their behaviour has been nothing short of outstanding, both on and off the course.
I was told last year by Johnny Johnson to be ready to deal with the 'dodgy' emails and letters identifying incidents involving alleged poor Junior behaviour. Well I don't know what Johnny was talking about, I haven't received one letter or email. Dick the Steward has remained silent and even Eric [Tetchner] has said nothing but good things about the Juniors. He must on the happy pills. He's even taken to helping out at County Junior events which is tremendous.
So you can all give yourselves a big 'pat on the back' - I am very proud of every one of you.
Keep it up please - I am sure that the President, Vice President and Senior Officers of the Club would echo these remarks, but perhaps most importantly your parents.

Now the reason we are all here - 'the golf'

I will deal with the Competitions first.
Entries to all competitions have increased considerably. We now average around 24 players in each major competition. Compare this to last year when for instance in one major we had 4 entrants. This is, I believe, all down to the email forum which has made you all more aware of what's happening.

I would like to see this figure grow to around 30. There is no reason why it shouldn't. We have over 80 Junior members, 60% of whom have handicaps [around 50]. More entrants equals more prizes and larger prizes.

I therefore ask all regular junior competition entrants to encourage their friends to play more comps.....and to those without handicaps to encourage them to put cards in to get a handicap and to join in the fun.

We still have one competition to play and one matchplay final to arrange.
The Handicap Cup will now be played on Friday 23rd October at 9.30am. Sorry to those of you who are away that week. It won't happen next year. An oversight on my part.
The entry sheet is already up. [NB - The fixture card says Junior Team event]. Substitute that for the Handicap Cup - the last medal of the season.

Our 2 fun events, the 3 club comp and the fun day, have both been a success and my thanks go to those who helped me out, particularly to Max and JC who came to my aid when I needed it most. I want to run more next year but I will need help.

Our biggest day of the year, The Junior Open,
saw a record number of entries which included a couple of 5 year olds playing in the 12 hole competition and both getting 17 points. Remarkable.
...and not only did we win the Team prize again but one of our girls, Geewon, won the overall competition. Well done to Geewon, Aiden and Dave Willis [our team] as well as all our other prize winners that day.

I hope you all noticed that there were more prizes and better prizes this year. All done to encourage a better and bigger field and to make our open a 'must play' event.
We also featured as one of the new County 'Order of Merit' events which was undoubtedly why we had 30 single figure players here that day. The best gross was 68 in very blustery conditions. A measure of the talent on show.

The day of this event will continue to be the last Tuesday in July.
We are unable to move back to Festival Week because of other county Junior events.

Senior Comps

Several of you have done very well in Senior Club competitions. It is perhaps worth mentioning now that our male [12 and under handicappers] have picked up 5 major senior trophies here this year and that I have heard nothing but praise from the older and senior members for our winners. You have made a good and lasting impression. Long may it continue.

Now the Junior League run by the County
The fact that we finished bottom of our division does not tell the full story. We started well with a half at Kibworth and home win against Leicestershire. Then we lost at Mkt Harboro, very narrowly, and followed it 3 days later by losing at home to our eventual divisional winners, Scraptoft. That was it then. We couldn't win the Division so some new, and some old faces, played at Oadby in the final game.
The 2 old faces were Rob Berkeley and James Firth. Both will tell you that their form going into this fixture hardly warranted selection and true to their word they both got a hammering. There is one important thing to remember about this day and that is not the result but that this was both their final game as Juniors.
Age has got the better of them and I take this opportunity to thank them for their own personal contributions to the Juniors over several years. Well done Robbie and James.

I'd like to thank everyone who represented the Club in these matches. I am sure that the experience will enhance our chances of doing better next year. I think that with the squad we have there is a great chance for us to win something.

I will point out however that Glen Gorse Junior Luke Atkins is also a member at Kilworth Springs and that he was in the Kilworth Team that ultimately won their final against Scraptoft - Well done Luke. Kilworth will go to the National Team finals. I would love Glen Gorse to be there next year.

Handicaps next
Congrats to all those who have managed to get their handicap down this year and well done to those who have got their first handicap and are working hard to improve. A particular big well done to the likes of Ryan McIntyre and Jack Hancock who keep turning up to play in comps, determined to do well and get their handicap off 54. Don't worry it will happen for you. Just keep plugging away.

My regrets
There are 2 things I will mention. Firstly that we have not had a proper Junior social fixture for a while. That situation will change. Our new captain tells me so.

And secondly with regard to the Junior Website pages - The info will be updated more regularly next year but I do ask that if there is something that you think should go in there then please let me know and I will fix it for you.

and finally
my thanks go out to several people who I haven't mentioned yet. You know Johnny did this job for 5 years and many things became second nature to him. When you step into the breach, particularly when you take on responsibility for the future of Glen Gorse, because that is what are Junior section are, you need every bit of help you can get.
So first thanks go to Jenny and Carol for your tireless hours of support to me.
To the Handicap Committee for all their support and assistance. A particular mention to Keith Hopewell.
To the President and the Captain and their team of club officials for their support for the Juniors.
To all those parents and friends who have assisted with the running of competitions, Starter duties and getting competitors to venues.
To Dominic for his continued great support to the Juniors, particularly through his Coaching Regime.
To Francis Kempster and his team of Green staff who have provided us with a brilliant playing venue throughout the year. I keep referring to Glen Gorse as South Leicestershire's Premier Golfing Resort. This course really is a great test of Golf.
To the catering staff, Dick, Elaine, Rich Jnr and their team...and lastly to your Junior Captain, Aiden Kirby.
It's been a pleasure. Well done on your year. I hope you enjoyed it and that I have not caused you too much grief. Aiden has not played as much golf as he would have liked but has remained on 12 throughout the year, playing very steadily and making the winners enclosure twice that I am aware of. He is a very talented golfer who could be very good if he just played a bit more so please keep it going Aiden and good luck with your football - apparently you're pretty good at that as well.
Bob Blair

[This report was read out by Bob at the Junior AGM on 1/10/09]

Photos from the Junior AGM: