Gloucestershire Golf Union
SOUTH WEST U18 Boys Championships
SW U18 Boys Championships Thursday 10th July 2025
This year’s Championships were held at Perranporth GC in Cornwall and the team of 8 boys selected to represent Gloucestershire were:
1. Ambrose Eaves – Captain (Broadway)
2. Edison Butler (Lansdown)
3. Ernie Elford (Bristol & Clifton)
4. Charlie Jenkins (Filton)
5. Oscar Linton (Bristol & Clifton)
6. Charlie Pearce-Ward (The Players)
7. Jaxson Perry (The Kendleshire)
8. Lucas Searle (Long Ashton)
Only a couple of the boys had played Perranporth before and for those of you who know the course, you will know how tricky it is on certain holes to pick out your line of attack, so the decision was made to have two practice rounds ahead of the Championships on the Thursday. All the boys arrived in good spirits on the Tuesday for the first practice round and looking forward to the challenge ahead. The weather was a bit overcast with a slight breeze blowing from the South West but pretty much idyllic for links golf and this was the pretty much the same for the Wednesday practice round as well albeit the sun was more prominent, making the golf that bit trickier. Tom Motley & Chris Lloyd were both on hand to help and guide the boys during the practice rounds and the advice they were able to impart on a fast running links golf course proved invaluable. Once both practice rounds had finished, it was straight back to the Hotel to have some food and relax. On the Wednesday evening after dinner we announced 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 Elsham Golf Club at the end of August.
The six man team selected to represent the GGU was Ambrose Eaves (Captain), Edison Butler, Ernie Elford, Charlie Jenkins, Oscar Linton & Jaxson Perry with Charlie Pearce-Ward & Lucas Searle both competing individually to become the individual SW Boys Champion. The forecast for the Thursday was clear blue skies with the wind changing direction from the North East and with the temperatures set for the mid 20s, it was a day to keep hydrated and well nourished. The course was presented in excellent condition with fast fiery fairways which you would expect for this time of year so it was a case of plotting your way around the golf course to make a score and Ambrose certainly achieved this in the morning with an excellent 67 (-5) and this proved to be the best score on the day, resulting in him winning the Junior Telegraph competition held in the morning. The other 4 scoring rounds in the morning were Edison 72 (Level), Charlie 75 (+3), Ernie 77 (+5) and Oscar & Jaxson who both had 79s (+7) which resulted in the GGU team being 2 shots behind the leaders after the morning round who were Wiltshire. There were some tails of woe to report from the morning round with the 3 balls lost by Jaxson on the back 9 and the 4 putt on the 6th & hitting an inappropriately parked buggy on the 9th from Oscar to name but 3!
Anyway, it was all to play for in the 2nd round but with the heat increasing as the day progressed, it became a bit of a war of attrition so concentration was key and the boys coped well. First in was Ambrose with a 74 (+2), then Jaxson with a 75 (+3), Oscar with a 74 (+2), Ernie with a 73 (+1), Charlie with a 78 (+6) and finally Edison with a non scoring 82 (+10). Unfortunately this was not good enough to overall Wiltshire who finished 10 shots ahead of us on a grand total of 734 (+14) but it was a great team effort overall with the boys digging in on a very hot day. A special mention must go the Ambrose who narrowly missed out on winning the individual title of SW Boys U18 Champion by just one shot, being pipped by Toby Clark from Wiltshire who sank a great 12ft putt on the last to seal victory. So congratulations to Toby and his Wiltshire team mates on their respective wins and we wish them all the best in the England Finals at the end of August.
Scoring for the event can be found in the following links:
Individual Scores: HERE
Team Scores: HERE
Our thanks go to Perranporth Golf Club for hosting the event and presenting the course in such great condition despite the recent increase in temperatures 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 Richard Salter (GGU President), Dean Newbold (GGU Executive Secretary) and Chris Lloyd for all their support and help over the 3 days, I know the boys really appreciated it.
We can now all look forward to the SW Championships in July next year which will take place at Weston-Super-Mare in Somerset and it is particularly pleasing that all the boys representing Gloucestershire this year will all be available again next year so this year’s experience will be particularly invaluable to them all.
The Management Team
(Ian James, Mark Powell, Tom Motley)
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