Young players from Morpeth Golf Club to represent county at Junior Champion Club Final

Sandy Twynholm with Alan Young, Daniel Hourigan and Ethan Hourigan. Picture: Morpeth Golf Club

The three players, Alan Young and Daniel and Ethan Hourigan, qualified for the final after winning the Northumberland Junior Teams Championship event, which was held at Morpeth Golf Club earlier this month.

The championship is based on a handicap scoring system and saw the boys win by an impressive seven shots from second-placed Hexham with a three-player total score of 244.

They will now go on to represent Northumberland at the National Golf Centre, which is also England Golf’s headquarters, in Woodhall Spa in Lincolnshire on August 16-17.

The English Junior Champion Club final is a 36-hole tournament, with 18 holes played on each day.

The winners are the team with the highest aggregate nett Stableford score over the two days, with the best two scores from the three team members in each round counting.

In nett Stableford scoring players score more points the better they do, so a bogey gets one point, a par two and so on.

Sandy Twynholm, the junior liaison officer for Morpeth Golf Club, is hopeful the boys will do well in the competition and said: “Because they take the boys’ handicap into account they have a good chance.”

The club is proud of its junior academy which gives players aged from six to 18 the chance to learn from golf professional Kieran Graham with help from volunteer Phil Shaw, who is in charge of junior competitions, and the opportunity to compete for up to 13 trophies a season.

About 30 youngsters are involved and receive an hour’s fun structured coaching on a Thursday evening as well as having the opportunity to take part in the Northumberland Junior Golf League, which is made up of two leagues consisting of seven teams each, with six youngsters in each team.

The winners and runners-up of each league then play to decide the champions.

Mr Twynholm said: “There’s also a Northern Junior Golf Tour with lots of different categories which is a really good experience for young players,” and added “the dream for some of the young players is to be good enough to get a scholarship to America”.