East Lothian Junior Golf League

Supporting junior golf in East Lothian, Scotland

Muss. Old’s 350th on Sky!

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The 2nd March 2022, the Musselburgh Old Course Golf Club commemorated the 350th anniversary of the first record of golf being played on the historic Old Course. This was a landmark day for the World’s oldest surviving golf course as they celebrated their 350th anniversary! Good to see some Juniors involved in the celebrations. A press release has been issued and can be seen here. A video can be seen here on Sky Sports.

Ian Sills, Provest John McMillian, Ellie Robertson, Brodie Irving, Freya Robertson, Neena Irving, Drew Irving, Terry Gillan, James Bonthron, Stevie Hill, Alan Tweedie
Picture: Alan Rennie

See photos below. They were in order of photos below:- Rory Leishman, Louise Martin, and Cameron Brown. Many thanks to them for volunteering! The transmission will be on Sky Sports News on Wednesday the 2nd March which is a huge milestone in golf – as Musselburgh Old will then become the first golf course to reach its 350th Anniversary!
Many thanks to the Club for hosting us and providing refreshments. We hope to have their Juniors rejoining our League at some stage.
Cheers, Dave Warren
07595 301425

 

 

 

Watson Cup reunion 2022

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Some of the Players from the 2018 Watson Cup Match met up at North Berwick on the 4th January for a reunion game. Sadly some Players were unable to attend, Team Leader Gareth Jack and Connor Wilson were both unwell, and Andrew Scott, Cammie Gallagher and Aaron Hall were unavailable.  We managed to draft in Neil Canavan, to make up 2 three-balls comprising A – Dave Warren, Jamie Duguid and Neil, and B – Jack Rogan, David Rudd and Cammie Spencer. Despite the cold winds, the scoring, the best 2 gross scores on each hole, was excellent with Neil scoring 6 birdies on his own, to lead Team A to a 3 under par score. However Team B romped in with 6 under par to take the spoils. Jamie hit some notable downwind drives measuring 360-370 yards! L-R Jamie, Neil, Cammie, Jack, Dave and David. There are many great photos to remind us of the fantastic match at Kiawah Island in 2018, which can be seen on this website under the drop-down on the menu bar. Note Tom Watson and Dave Stockton being there! 

Happy New Year!

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I would like to thank all our Players, Parents, and Junior Convenors for their participation and support throughout 2021. I look forward to seeing you at our events in 2022. You can see the League fixtures on the right hand column of this page, and a very detailed Calendar under the drop down on the menu bar.

I had a treat on the last day of 2021 when Grace Crawford (plus 3 handicap at West Links) Connor Wilson (plus 5 at Castle Park) and I were invited to play at Archerfield Dirleton with Pro DJ Russell, the architect of the course and Captain of our Watson Cup Team to play South Carolina in July 2022. Scottish Internationalists Connor (21) and Grace (15), on holiday from her new school in the Bahamas, teamed up to defeat the old Boys but only by 1 hole! I have to say that these two young Players are amongst the best in the Country. They both played golf of the highest standard. Both plan to compete in top amateur events in 2022 and we wish them the best of luck!

 

Watson Cup practice at Muirfield

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The Team of Players from the Edinburgh and East Lothian Junior Leagues who have been selected for the Watson Cup in July 2022 enjoyed a courtesy practice round over Muirfield on Tuesday the 21st December. The Match is to be played over Royal Burgess, Muirfield and Gullane No. 1 on the 5th, 6th and 7th of July. The Team of 8 whose handicaps are all plus (better than scratch) includes Sam Hall and Connor Currie but both were unable to attend, so one of the Reserves, Jake Johnston, and a Vice Captain, David Rudd, stepped up and made up the two groups. They played a modified format which challenged the Players who changed partners every 6 holes, and which incorporated varied formats of play – Greensomes, Four-ball, and Foursomes. Several pairs equalled or bettered par for 6 holes and one player, Cameron Adam, managed to be in 3 pairings who each managed that feat! Watson Cup Captain DJ Russell and Chairman Dave Warren walked round, despite the cold, and watched all the play! Vice President Douglas Connon was unable to attend but assisted with the organisation of the event. The Watson Cup organisers are very grateful to the Honourable Company for hosting our group. More practice events may be held at the other venues at Easter and again, shortly before the Match itself.

2022 Tom Watson Cup Team picked!

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The Tom Watson Cup is a biennial match between a combined Team selected from Players who compete in either the East Lothian or the Edinburgh Junior Golf Leagues, and a Team from the South Carolina Junior Golf Association. The Match has been postponed from 2020. In 2022, the match will be played on the 5th, 6th and 7th of July over Royal Burgess (Fourballs), Muirfield (Foursomes) and Gullane (Singles) respectively. We are looking forward to welcoming the SCJGA Team which will contain some of the top Junior Golfers in the USA. We are extremely grateful to the host Clubs who have agreed to accommodate the Match. 

Some of our younger Players will be unavailable due to committing to play in the Scottish Boys U16s which is to be played in the same week, but they will still be eligible for selection for the 2024 Match in the USA. We may lose one or two Players from the Team should they be selected for Scotland in the Boys European Team Championships, which is also in the same week. Grace Crawford, currently at home after her first term at school in the Albany Club in The Bahamas, was also considered but after her performance with 5 wins from 6 in the Junior Home Internationals in 2021, it is a fair bet that Grace will be in the Girls Team for the Europeans, so she will also be considered for the Team in 2024. 

Four of the Players who qualified for our Team for the scheduled Match in 2020 have had to step down as they will no longer be age-eligible in 2022.  The Home Team will now consist of the following 8 Players, many of whom compete for Teams in both of the Leagues and all of them currently hold plus handicaps.-

Edinburgh League – Archie Finnie, Cameron Adam, Ciaran Paterson, (all Royal Burgess Members) and Connor Currie, (Turnhouse.)

East Lothian League – Harry Bent, Sam Hall, (both Gullane) Luke Greig (Royal Musselburgh) and Callum Waugh (Craigielaw).

There is also a pool of Players who are currently being informed of their selection as reserves. Their order of priority will be decided after performances in National and Order of Merit events in early 2022. Some practice rounds are currently being arranged for our Team and Reserves.

Orders of Merit – Final results!

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There were many OOM positions and prizes to sort out after the final Match-Day at the West Links. Thanks are due to Stuart Martin, now a TV star, (see below) of the host Club for assisting with the compilation of these.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The OOM positions, with thanks to Golf Genius, are pasted in below the photographs and an analysis and the prize list. There were 130 Juniors who competed in at least 1 Match Day this year. The format is that Players count their best 5 placings at the 10 Match Days. The outright Scratch OOM winner was current Lothians Boys Champion Fergus Brown of Gullane who won by 9 OOM points from Luke Greig of Royal Musselburgh. Fergus’ 7 appearances in the 10 Match Days, resulted in these finishing positions (with T indicating a tied place) – 1, 1, 2, T2 and a T4. He was able to discard other finishes of T5 and T9. Fergus showed a consistently high standard all year and thoroughly deserved his voucher for £100 and an Open Championship woolly hat! His handicap was reduced from 0.5 at his first MD to +1.1 by the end of the season. Luke, the current East Lothian Junior League Champion, was placed T1, T2, T3, T4 and 4 in his best 5 placings from 7 appearances. The 3rd to 5th placed Players, who all received vouchers and prizes, were Jack Lucas of Gullane, Magnus Braby of Craigielaw, and Jack Collingswood of the West Links.

The winner of the Net OOM, and a voucher for £100 and an Open Championship woolly hat, was Connor Cook of Gifford, who was placed T1, T2, T4, T6 and T7 in his best 5 placings from 8 appearances. In the final Match Day of the season at West Links, Connor’s closest pursuer, Daryl Yuill of Craigielaw, could not make up the gap and improve on his worst placing of T13. During the season Connor reduced his handicap from 24 to 16! Other prizewinners were Adam McLean of Craigielaw, Jamie Barker of Royal Musselburgh and Harry Dunkinson who filled the next 3 places. Five players also received a prize for playing in all 10 MDs!

There were additional prizes for Girls and for for Age Groups U14 and U12. The winners in all categories can be seen in the table below. The top Girl in the Scratch section was Evie McCallum, and in the Net section it was Rebecca Wilson, both playing for the East Lothian Ladies Girls Team. They both received golf caps from the recent Solheim Cup which were both signed by the European Team Captain Catriona Matthew.  All the other players in the prize list below received prizes donated either by the League, the R&A, or by the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers at Muirfield. Our thanks are due to all of them.

Photos of Evie McCallum, and Rebecca Wilson, winners of the Girls Scratch and Net OOMs respectively, with their prizes signed by Catriona Matthew.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photos of the winners with League Secretary Dave Warren – Fergus Brown (top) and Connor Cook (below)

 

 

 

Goodbye to some Juniors!

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As somehow happens every year, Juniors have a habit of becoming too old for the following year so we wish them well in their further education and future careers, and hope they will keep playing golf for the rest of their lives. The Players in this category who have regularly supported the League are: – Gregor Thomson, Carl Schmidt, Blair Welsh, Sam Hall, Neil Canavan, Annie Wilson, Connor Currie, Lucy Morrison, Angus Mather, Natalie Fowler, Mikey Shepherd, Byron Archibald, Scott Marnoch, Caelan Pugh, Emma Chapman and Ala Gorka. Sadly, Alexander Yuill and his family will be moving away to Surrey, but we hope he stays in touch. The following attributes you may have learned through golf may serve you well in future.

League winners – Craigielaw!

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In a thrilling climax to the season, four Teams were in the battle for the top 3 places. Going into our final Match Day, Craigielaw had a 2 point lead over Gullane and a 6 point lead over West Links. East Lothian Girls were well placed only 3 behind West Links. Paired with their rivals Gullane and West Links, the Craigielaw Team of Callum Waugh, Adam McLean, Lewis Russell, Alexander Yuill, Fraser Walters and Magnus Braby all stepped up their games to win maximum points for the 3rd time this season, to edge home 4 points ahead of Gullane, and 7 points ahead of West Links. The only other Team with 3 wins this season were the East Lothian Girls Team, and they finished in 4th place in the League table. Craigielaw used 15 Players in the season, Gullane, with their transition from two Teams into one part way through the season, used 21 Players, and West Links used 12 Players. All Players in these 3 squads received prizes which were donated by the R&A, and by Muirfield.  These were given to the Convenors on the day, for later distribution to their squads. The final League Table appears on the front page.  It has been a great season for Craigielaw, as they also won the Scottish Junior Team Championship recently. An article appeared in the East Lothian Courier recently. See the two photos below.

The photo below shows some of the Craigielaw squad. L-R back row: – Dave Warren (League Secretary,) Callum Waugh, Adam McLean, Alexander Yuill, Gordon Smith (Craigielaw Junior Convenor) and Magnus Braby. Front row – Fraser Walters, and Team Captain Daryl Yuill. Sadly, Lewis Russell had to leave before the prize-giving. 

 

MD9 at Gullane – Results Prizes

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These are the Team and Individual scores from MD9. Congratulations to Craigielaw for winning the Team event by 2 points from Gullane. Craigielaw go to the top of the League, with one MD left to go. Congratulations to Evie McCallum who had the best score of 38 points. The best scratch score was by Callum Waugh with 36 points with a gross score of 71. Conditions were very tricky with a strong westerly wind and some showers. The League Table etc will be updated asap. The scoring on Golf Genius has been closed and scores have now been uploaded to the WHS. Any Handicap changes will take place after midnight. Many thanks to the helpers on the day, Mark Lucas, Steve Austin, John Anderson and Gullane Ladies’ Captain Ann Henderson. THE SCRATCH AND HANDICAP ORDERS OF MERIT (OOM) are coming to a conclusion and these standings can be seen on the App under “Member Portal” and you can toggle between the scratch and handicap lists, best viewed in “Landscape” format.  In the Scratch OOM, Fergus Brown’s lead of 22 points has been narrowed to just 8 points better than Luke Greig, as Fergus only improved his worst finish of T9 to a T5, whilst Luke Greig discarded his worst finish of T22, improving this with a 4th place. Jack Lucas in 3rd place, is unlikely to be able to catch the 2 leaders now. In the handicap OOM, leader Daryl Yuill, could not improve on his worst placing of T13 so was overtaken by Connor Cook’s T2 placing at Gullane. Connor is now 15 points ahead of Daryl. Connor now has a worst placing of T7 which is difficult to better, but Daryl’s worst placing is still that T13. By my calculations, Daryl can improve his total by as much as 17 points if he were to win at MD10, whilst Connor, can only improve by 11 points. In the final MD, the leading boys will be paired together for a bit of added excitement! ALL PLAYERS – If you can play in the final Match Day 10 at North Berwick, on Sunday the 31st October. please register through Golf Genius. Your Convenor will tell you if you are in their Team or are playing as a reserve.

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