GOLF
By BLAKE METCALF-HOLT
MORWELL Golf Club and Yallourn Golf Club hosted the inaugural Junior Golf Championship last week with raging success across the board.
The first junior golf tournament of its kind in the region featured 66 participants from across the state and Gippsland competing over two days at each course.
Not only did the event count towards aspiring juniors Victorian Junior Averages (which go towards the Geoff Oglivy Trophy and the Future Champions Trophy) but players also received ranking points, giving some of them their first chance to leapfrog into other major golf tournaments.
Chairman of the Gippsland Junior Golf Championship, Paul Buchanan initiated the idea with Alan Bishop of Yallourn Golf Club and Morwell Golf Club President, Frank Tabone.
Buchanan, an American, is a golf coach across the Melbourne metropolitan area and has been doing lessons at local golf clubs in the Latrobe Valley for some time. He believed this was a necessity for the future of the sport in the area and its young country players.
“In Gippsland, we didn’t have any junior championships and I grew up with junior golf in the United States and what I did was bring the most successful event in Florida to Gippsland,” he said.
“This event is something I grew up with as a kid. It started out with 45 kids over three different days at three different courses and I played in it every year until I was 18, so it is deep in my heart and we’ll keep it going for at least 10 years I know, so hopefully we see a lot of (the kids) back.”
Smashing their expected pool of entrants, it also saw almost 25 kids arrive from Melbourne as well as from other suburbs like Bendigo, Ballarat and Colac.
The Overall Stroke Champions were Rehan Pervaiz of Sandhurst Golf Club (gross total of 140) and Vivian Zhai of Yarra Yarra Golf Club (162 total).
“Firstly, I’d like to thank Morwell and Yallourn Golf Club’s for hosting the event, the course was in great nick on both courses,” Pervaiz said upon accepting his trophy.
“Paul and the volunteers, you guys really made the event great. I’d like to thank my playing partners for having a good time and last but not least I’d like to thank my family and coach for always believing in me.”
One last surprise was awarded to the winners, as both Pervaiz and Zhai were presented exemptions straight into the qualifiers of the prestigious Australian Master of the Amateurs.
Subcommittees of both clubs who helped get this together now put their heads down and focus on ensuring that the next Gippsland Junior Golf Championships are even bigger than the last.
“A lot of effort by working (it) out and it was a test and a trial this year and I think we achieved what we wanted to achieve but we also learnt lots from it,” Tabone said.
Plans are already underway, with early projections that the tournament will expand to a 54-hole event (three days, three courses) which will elevate its status into potential world ranking and will only attract even more junior players.
Other championship winners were: Girls Nett Championship: Rebecca Boers (139 total), Boys Nett Championship: Cooper Underwood (136), Boys Nett – Division 2: Fletcher McLennan, Boys Stroke Championship – Divison 2: Tyler Elliott.
Other results: PeeWee Division: Nathan McGrath, Mixed Stableford Division – 9 hole: Aurora Snowdon, Stableford Boys Division: Hudson Brown.
