EAST LOTHIAN JUNIOR GOLF - MERRY CHRISTMAS AND REVIEW OF 2010

Written by David Warren  - Secretary East Lothian Junior Golf League

Sunday, 19 December 2010 11:36

I would like to wish all Juniors and Organisers a very Merry Christmas  and a Happy New Year, and the best of golfing fortune in 2011. The highlights of 2011 include The British Girl's Championship and Home Internationals at Gullane and The Scottish Boys' Championships at Dunbar.  All Junior Events of possible interest for next year will be found at our "Events" section - make sure you don't miss out on anything! Get your entries in early. Now the snow has appeared again it is unlikely that any of us will get any  golf over the holiday period, so the next best thing might be to watch the Daily Telegraph Abu Dhabi Junior Championships on TV. This programme is  aired 5 times on Sky on 22nd and 23rd December and you can get these Channels and times by searching for Abu Dhabi Junior Golf at this site:- http://tv.sky.com/tvlistings I have prepared a report of the golfing accomplishments of our Teams  and Individual Juniors for 2010. This can be seen by clicking on "read  more" below. Well done to you all.  Dave Warren, ELJGL Secretary. East Lothian Junior Golf League - Review of 2010 The East Lothian Junior golf year year started in fantastic style when  Craigielaw, at the 3rd time of trying, finally won the Junior Home Nations Championship in Spain. Grant Forrest won the 54 hole aggregate  scratch prize, and probably set an all time record in being undefeated in 9 head to head matches in 3 finals. Dougie Maxwell won the prize for the  lowest scratch round. A substantial amount of TV coverage of that Final  exists on the Talent Nation website -http://www.talentnation.com/channel/viewByName/golf The Craigielaw  Team were also later presented with the "Team Of The Year" award  at the East Lothian Celebrating Sports Awards. Also at club level, Gullane were narrowly defeated by Orkney Golf Club  in the clubgolf Junior Club of the year. http://www.clubgolfscotland-youth.co.uk/cluboftheyear.html In the County’s 3 main Team events in 2010, the League title, the format  being 6-a-side matchplay, was won by a strong Tantallon team for the 2nd  time in 3 years, and for the 4th time in the 35 year history of the event.  Craigielaw were a close 2nd and Haddington were 3rd. Both Tantallon  and Craigielaw therefore qualified for the Junior Home Nations Scottish  Final at Spey Valley in October, where Tantallon were 2nd (by 1 stroke to  Liberton) and Craigielaw were 3rd. In 2011 there is a distinct possibility  that East Lothian will be able to send a select Girls Team to the UK finals,  subject to sufficient funding becoming available. Congratulations also go to the 4 man Tantallon team for winning the  Strokeplay Team event at Dunbar, followed closely by Longniddry.  Gullane’s Team won the handicap prize at the same event, and  Anthony Blaney’s 69 gross was one of the best rounds of the year. Congratulations also go to the 4 man Haddington team who won the  recent County Cup at Gullane, beating Longniddry in the final. There was  added spice in this match as the Haddington Convenor is Jim Simpson,  whose son Stevie is the Longniddry Convenor. The League would like to thank the Clubs who hosted the 3 major County  events – these were Dunbar, Gullane and Royal Musselburgh. All three  courses were in superb condition and all made the players very welcome.  In 2011 these three major Junior County events are to be played at  Winterfield, Musselburgh Old and Longniddry. There were many age group winners at the EL Championships this year  at Royal Musselburgh, and these are all on the website. Euan Bowden  with 138, and Clara Young with a 78, lifted the scratch trophies and are  our County Champions. Prizes were won by 26 players out of the field of  84, a record attendance. The website contains all these details. East Lothian  Council continued to generously sponsor the event, and it is hoped that  this relationship will continue. The League has received this accolade  from Councillor Paul McLennan - "East Lothian is blessed by many fine  golfers and really appreciate the work of the ELJGL in supporting  development of golf in East Lothian.” There have been many notable performances by individuals this year,  and most, if not all, of these, are on the website. Pride of place must go  equally to Craigielaw’s Grant Forrest for winning his 2nd National title, the Scottish Boys’ Championship at West Kilbride and to Gullane Ladies’ Lesley Atkins for winning her 1st National title, the Scottish Girls’ Championship  at Eyemouth. East Lothian member Rachel Watton led the qualifiers by a staggering 11 strokes and Craigielaw’s Gabrielle MacDonald reached  the semi-final.  All 4 players then went on to represent Scotland with  distinction in their respective Home Internationals. Grant also went on to represent GB&I against Europe in Milan and he finished 5th in the  Egyptian Amateur. A five minute resume of the 2010 Scottish Boys Final can be viewed  through this link. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/scotland/8623624.stm Other performances of note by East Lothian players include, and in no  particular order:- Clara Young in the Scottish Girls’ Golf Academy U16s  Winter Series finished 3rd, Lachlan Imrie was 2nd in the Paul Lawrie  Jug at Newmachar, Charlotte Munro was 1st and Greg Lovenlock 2nd in  the Clubgolf Scottish Junior Masters at Renaissance, in which Gullane  had 4 qualifiers. Fraser Thain made the cut in the British Boys’  Championship at Kilmarnock, and Lesley Atkins did the same in the  British Girls’ at Royal Belfast, but both were defeated in the early  matchplay stages. Lesley was 2nd and Clara 3rd in the Faldo Series  Scottish Championship at The Roxburghe after which Lesley then  finished 4th in the U16s Grand Final at Lough Erne in Ireland. A recent  EL Junior, Neil Henderson, won the Boys’ Faldo Series at The Roxburghe  with a gross 142 but could not compete in the Grand Final due to College commitments in the USA. Clara was 2nd in the Scottish Girls U14 event  at Auchterarder with a gross 70. Both Clara and Keren Ward represented East Lothian Ladies’ in Inter-County events. Grant with a gross 282 for  72 holes, lost in a play off in the Sir Henry Cooper Junior Masters in Kent.  Grant is now ranked at 773 in the R&A world rankings, higher than former  EL Juniors Neil Henderson, Mark Hillson and Alexander Culverwell see - http://wagr.randa.org/ Mark made the cut in the British Amateur at  Muirfield and North Berwick, but Alexander and Neil just missed out.  Fraser, Danny Kay and Greg Smail all made the cut in the Scottish Youths Championship at Monifeith and had respectable finishes. The re-arranged Scottish Junior Champion of Championship event from 2009 was  played over the Dukes Course at St Andrews in March. The Boys' winner  with a 72 was Craigielaw’s Simon Fairburn beating Grant who scored 73.  Simon also defeated Anthony Blaney by one hole in the final of the  Lothians Boys’ Championship. Fraser and Craigielaw’s Ewen Donaldson  were the defeated semi-finalists. All four boys are linked with East Lothian  Clubs, and the event was sponsored by Neil’s father Ian through the North Berwick based business Golf Finance. The Lothians Team including  Anthony, Fraser and Grant, were in the winning Team in the Scottish Boys  Area Team Championship at Peebles, perhaps owing their success to  valuable coaching input from ex-tour Professional Dean Robertson. The  Final of the Ladies’ North Berwick Club Championships was contested by Juniors Clara and Keren. Clara emerged as the winner with some excellent  golf. Alasdair Simpson, also still a Junior, defeated Nick Peoples in the  Mens event, winning by one hole after an excellent 36 hole match of low  scoring. Calum Hill, aged 14, reached the final of the Tantallon Club Championship where he lost by 3&2 to recent Junior Shaun Gordon.  In the  US Kids’ Golf Gullane’s Duncan McLean finished tied 4th in the Boys 14  group, just 2 shots behind the winner. Stephen Neilson, a recent Junior  at Dunbar Golf Club, had a wonderful run in the Scottish Amateur by  reaching the semi-final where he lost narrowly to the eventual winner. Oliver Huish reached a +1 handicap and has now turned Professional. However,  pride of place for our recent Juniors must go to the Saltman brothers Lloyd  and Elliot, formerly of Craigielaw but now linked to Archerfield Golf Club, who  have both just have gained cards at the Qualifying School for the European  Tour.  Grant Forrest has announced his intention to take up the offer of a  golf scholarship at San Diego University. Apologies if I have missed off  any other notable results. We wish all our recent Juniors moving on a  lifetime of enjoyable golf in the future, whether as Professionals or  Amateurs. A Coaching programme for Boys has again been in place this year, funded  by Procladd Scotland Ltd. and was expertly delivered by John Sandilands  the Professional at Haddington Golf Club. A search for funding for 2011  for coaching for Boys and Girls has resulted in a grant from The Golf  Foundation and clubgolf but additional funding required will be discussed  at the AGM. In County Matches this year, much experience was gained in the Boys’  matches against Loretto at Dunbar, where East Lothian lost 3.5 to 2.5,  and against Edinburgh at Baberton, where East Lothian lost 6 to 4. An  East Lothian Boys v. Girls match was also played which resulted in a  convincing win for the Girls. Ric Foulner the Tantallon Junior Convenor puts in a huge amount of work  in arranging both the County Matches and the Coaching as does Lesley Nicholson, Captain of this years Scottish Ladies Team in the Womens’  World Amateur Championship, in East Lothian Girls’ golf. Even experienced players can be unsure as to the rules of golf and  etiquette and there are always a few mistakes made every year in our  Junior events which result in penalties being incurred. Players should  view the pictorial explanations of the rules and test their knowledge by undertaking the quizzes which appear on the R&A website. The website, expertly maintained by Webmaster Keith Young, continues  to grow and now contains an exhaustive list of Junior fixtures, totalling  around 170 this year. Some items have had almost 2000 hits since  being published. The website is also used by Kate Green, ELC Junior Golf Development Coordinator to promote “clubgolf” and other events. Kate and the “clubgolf”  staff and volunteers work with the U12s age group, and current and future successes is the source of most of any future success for our Clubs and  for the County. The website is also used to promote EL Secondary Schools League matches and congratulations are due to Preston Lodge for winning  the 09/10 League. I would also like to thank all Convenors for their support throughout the  Season, particularly Harry Bentley, Dougie Denholm, Nicky Black, Andrew Needen, and Willie Rodgers for assisting in running our major events.  A special thanks to Willie - he will be stepping down as Convenor at Royal Musselburgh after 25 years! So, as we move into 2011, the future for Junior Golf in East Lothian looks  very healthy indeed, but there is much more work to be done! The County  will host both the Scottish Boys’ Championship at Dunbar and The British  Girls Championship and Girls’ Home International Matches at Gullane so  our players will hopefully put their local knowledge into place. Good luck to  all our young players. David Warren, Secretary and Treasurer, ELJGL.19/12/2010