Gloucestershire Golf Union
U18's WIN SOUTH WEST CHAMPIONSHIPS
SW U18 Boys Championships Tuesday 9th July 2024
This year’s Championships were held at Broadstone GC in Poole, Dorset and the team of 8 boys selected to represent Gloucestershire were:
1. Ollie Crowley (Henbury)
2. Ambrose Eaves (Broadway)
3. Finn Ellis (Bristol & Clifton)
4. Ash Millington - Captain (The Players)
5. Jaxson Perry (The Kendleshire)
6. Leo Powell (Ross on Wye)
7. Brandon Skidmore (Cotswold Hills)
8. Joel Warne (The Players)
The practice round took place on the Monday and all the boys arrived in good spirits looking forward to the challenge ahead. Tom Motley & Chris Lloyd had walked the course ahead of the practice round so that they could impart their knowledge and guidance onto the players whilst practicing and this proved invaluable, particularly when looking at slope ratings on certain holes. We started the practice round in the dry but the forecast was for rain later in the round and sure enough, it became particularly unpleasant after 11 holes, so rather than get soaked through, it was decided to walk the last 7 holes with brolleys to keep all the kit as dry as possible. Once finished, it was straight back to the Hotel to check-in, have some food and announce the team of 6 that would be the counting players for the tournament the next day where 5 out of the 6 scores in both the morning & afternoon rounds would count, with the lowest combined aggregate gross score from the 10 counting rounds then being declared the overall winners. That winning team would then go on to represent the South West in the all England Finals to be held at Teignmouth Golf Club at the end of August.
The six man team selected was Finn Ellis, Ash Millington, Jaxson Perry, Leo Powell, Brandon Skidmore and Joel Warne with Ollie & Ambrose both competing individually to become the individual SW Boys Champion. The rain overnight was incessant so the course was very wet when the boys started and the continual rain in the morning did not help the scoring overall. Our 5 scoring rounds in the morning were Brandon with a 69 (-1), Ash a 72, Leo a 73, Jaxson a 74 and Joel with 80 and the GGU team took a very slender 2 shot lead over Wiltshire into the afternoon round. Scoring was better in the afternoon as conditions dried a bit with Brandon again shooting a 69, Leo also with a 69, Ash with a 72, Joel with a 74 and Finn with 75 and after much nail biting whilst we waited for the last of the Wiltshire players to come in, we could eventually celebrate a fantastic win beating Wiltshire by only 5 shots once the final totals were tallied.. A really great team effort overall with the boys digging deep to come out on top for a well-deserved win. Special congratulations go to Brandon on winning the individual title of SW Boys U18 Champion for 2024 with a score of 138, and also to Leo for coming 2nd (142) and Ash coming 4th (143). It was also particularly pleasing to see Ambrose Eaves, one of our U16 squad players, finishing well up the leader board in 7th place on 146 with two rounds of 73 and he will no doubt be looking to improve on this in years to come.
Scoring for the event can be found in the following links:
Individual Scores: https://www.swcga.co.uk/live
Team Scores: https://www.swcga.co.uk/live2
Our thanks go to Broadstone Golf Club for hosting the event and presenting the course in such excellent condition despite the testing conditions and also to Ian Hulse, the SWCGA secretary, for all his efforts on the day and his excellent organisation ahead of the event.
Thanks also go to Gary & Dawn Ward for travelling down on the day to support the boys and also to Dereck Butler (Immediate Past President) who was with us every step of the way over the 2 days. It was particularly generous of Chris Lloyd to give up his time on the practice day and I know all the boys thoroughly enjoyed having him along to impart some very helpful hints and tips so many thanks to him too.
We can now all look forward to the England County Finals at Teignmouth which are being held from 27-29th and any supporters will be more than welcome to come along and join us.
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The Management Team
(Ian James, Mark Powell, Tom Motley)
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