Callum is top junior in county’s first Pathway Tour tournament
THE inaugural Leicestershire and Rutland Foxes Junior Pathway Tour for boys and girls held at Hinckley GC proved to be a big success, writes Jennifer Prentice.
It was the first of five such tournaments to be held this season, for which 120 boys and girls, aged between seven and 17, have already registered.
The tour is organised on behalf of the county golf union and the county ladies by their respective junior organisers Mick Billingham (Cosby) and Anita Higginson – the immediate past county ladies’ president – and girls competition manager Lyndsey Wheeler (Lutterworth).
Anita said: “We are delighted to get this initiative under way and off to such a successful start.
“We started to organise it only a short time ago and wanted to get it established as soon as we could to give boys and girls interested in golf a competitive format in which to play over either 18 or nine holes, depending on their age and experience, as soon as possible.
“There are four competitions altogether and we already have 120 boys and girls registered for this season.
“There is a Flag 50, Super 50, 9-holes and 18-holes. The clubs have been extremely generous in letting us have starting times so we hope to get as big a field as possible
for each one.
“By arranging something like this in which they can develop their golf, it keeps the costs down because it is happening near to their own home courses, and cuts down on their travelling expenses.
“There were some good performances at Hinckey and we are looking forward to the rest of the season now. We have an order of merit in conjunction with the five tournaments to add to the interest for the youngsters.”
Callum Oulds (Cosby) was the top overall junior with 43 points.
Top boy was Seva Johal (The Leicestershire) with 42pts, and top girl was Grace Hubbard, a host club member, with 39pts.
In the boys’ competition, second over the 18-holes section was William Simpkin (Longcliffe) on 36pts, with Noah Crowdell (Cosby) third on 35pts. In the girls’ competition, Emily Wolverson (The Leicestershire) was second on 38pts, with Lucy Wheeler (Lutterworth) third, also with 38pts.
Finley Gower (Hinckley) on 13pts was winner of the 9-holes boys’ section, with Florrie Coleman (Cosby) on 22pts heading the girls.
Top Super 50 boy was Anay Patel (The Leicestershire), who had 13 shots left, and top girl Sofia MacDougall (The Leicestershire), who had four shots left.
Runners-up were Kade Chapman (The Leicestershire) and Matilda Mankert (Lutterworth) with one shot left and the ninth green reached respectively.
Zachary Whittle (The Leicestershire) was first boy in the Flag 50 awards, with clubmate Edith Taunton the first girl after 23 shots and three shots left respectively.
Louis Ellard (Hinckley) and Thea Clow (Kibworth) were second – Louis had 16 shots left, and Thea one.
Any youngsters wishing to join the tournaments can get more information from the county men’s and ladies’ websites.