What a week! This week we hosted the Inaugural U16 girls Open Championship and what a week it was. We had girls come from 12 different countries. The lowest handicap player in the field had a handicap of +3.2 and the ballot was 10, which gave us 90 girls who were all very good players. Thursday was the official practice day and it came with a real buzz around the golf club. From watching the first tee shots we could tell all these girls meant business. Thursday night was the welcoming barbeque where Andrew fed 270 people followed by a trick shot show from Paul Barrington. Friday the competition started, and what a start it was, a good number of girls shot under par, but none could reach Beth Coulter who opened up with a fantastic -5 (69). Saturday is appropriately called moving day and that’s exactly what a few girls did, especially Elena Moosman from Switzerland, she followed her +2 round with a -5 to move into third position. Another highlight from Saturday was 10-year-old Rosie Bee-Kim who shot a very impressive -1 (73) with five straight birdies in there as well. Beth Coulter maintained her lead with a -1 round to get to -6 and two shots ahead of Kerrtu Hiltunen from Finland. This set up a thrilling final day. On Sunday, the leaders teed off last and were followed by a big crowd. 14-year-old Hannah Darling from Scotland was making a move she managed to hole a 40ft putt on the last hole to post -4 and become leader in the clubhouse. The leaders began to struggle coming down the tough last few holes and in the end Hannah Darling was crowned champion winning by two shots from Beth Coulter. Big congratulations to Hannah from all of us here in the pro shop. A special thank you to the greenkeepers who made the course look immaculate, also to all the volunteers who helped during the week. The week would not have been a success without all of you. Please see below for a selection of photos from throughout the week. |