East Lothian Junior Golf League

Supporting junior golf in East Lothian, Scotland

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.

David Rudd – EuroPro Tour card!

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David Rudd, one of our former League and Watson Cup Players has managed to secure a PGA EuroPro Card for 2022. David played well in tough conditions at Formby Hall at the end of last month to finish T2 and secure a spot in the final qualifying stages at Stoke by Nayland Golf Club last week. In a field of 195 players he finished the third round in the top 40 players and therefore he will have a full playing category for next year. This will ensure he is able to start all of the PGA EuroPro events that he decides to add to his schedule. Attached is a photo from last weeks pre-dawn warm up with thanks to Mum Maree!

SJTC 2021 Craigielaw – winners!

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Congratulations to the Craigielaw Team for their convincing win in the recent SJTC held at Crail. L-R in the photo – Gregor Thomson, Alexander Yuill, Junior Convenor Gordon Smith, Fraser Walters (with the trophy,) past SGU President Ian Howarth, Ryan Yuill, Daryl Yuill and Magnus Braby. Scores etc can be seen in another article on this website. Photos of all the Teams are in the Gallery of images in the “dropdown” menu under the SJTC heading.  East Lothian Courier article here.

SJTC 2021 – Results and Report

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Dear all, the amount of positive feedback from the Managers of the 20 Teams involved in the recent Scottish Junior Team Championship event at Crail has been astonishing! Thanks to all of you for making a huge contribution to the success of the event. We would like to also thank those friends who kindly donated some funds to help with acquiring prizes etc, and to thank other friends who conveyed such prizes obtained from the shops at Augusta National, and from the Olympic Club, to Scotland. Having some of those prizes signed by Sandy Lyle, Ian Woosnam and Catriona Matthew is a wonderful bonus for the Players and we hope they keep them as mementos! 

We hope we can build this “free to enter” event up into being the best end of season gathering for Junior Golfers of all abilities from all over Scotland. The handicap indices of Players at Crail ranged from +2 to 31, thus fulfilling Scottish Golf’s mantra – “Scotlands Game for Everyone.” We are delighted that Scottish Golf supported the SJTC event this year, as we feel the event is a “fit” with their National Junior Framework, and we hope that the SJTC will be mentioned within their website under “Events and Competitions” and be included in their fixture list. Scottish Golf’s COO Karin Sharp visited the event at Crail to see how it was being run. We hope Karin approved.
 
If competing in future SJTC events can help to stimulate and incentivise any defunct Junior Leagues to reform, or help any Junior Leagues who might be experiencing low numbers of Players to increase participation, that would be a wonderful outcome for our efforts. 
 
I’ve already had a call from a Junior Convenor from a golfing “hotspot” asking for advice on reforming a League and I advised him that this process really starts with Scottish Golf’s  “Learn to Golf” then by forming a Golf Foundation GolfSixes League both operating at “grass roots” level, and then by building up the numbers of active Juniors in Clubs, to a point where a League can then be formed. The East Lothian League supports our local GolfSixes League and there is a drop down on our website showing this years fixtures and results. We are fortunate in having short or par 3 golf courses at Craigielaw, North Berwick, Gullane etc. Local Council Golf Development Officers, if there is one, and local Golf Professionals, may be able to help with organising a GolfSixes League.
 
Our “not for profit” East Lothian Junior League adopted a new Stableford format some years ago, similar to the format of the SJTC, and we now have over 168 registered Players with handicaps, registered through our handicapping software provider, Golf Genius. 125 of those Juniors have played in at least one of our 8 of our 10 League Match Day fixtures held so far this year. At each of these, up to 84 Players can meet to compete as individuals and as Teams and all the scores count as acceptable scores for handicaps. To help with gender equality, an all-Girls Team competes representing the East Lothian LCGA. A few Players with Home Clubs in Lanarkshire, Fife and Northumberland have recently joined East Lothian Clubs, in order to be eligible to play in events in our League. The regular absence of low handicap Players at “elite” events, actually creates more opportunities for higher handicap Juniors to gain experience, as our League only runs events on a handicap basis – up to 28 for Boys and 36 for Girls. Higher handicapped players can play but have to play off these maximums.

All the scores in the SJTC can be seen on the free Golf Genius App, by downloading the App, by then accessing the competition “SJTC 2021 at Crail” and by then entering the code “SJTC.” The Gross and Net individual scores can be seen there as well as the best 5 out 6 Team scores. I attach the prize list below and screenshots of the scores. For those Teams who have not yet received their prizes, I am currently bagging them up and will be arranging delivery, if I can get any fuel! I will be in touch. 

Regards, Dave Warren. Secretary, East Lothian Junior Golf League. 07595 301425

Pro-Am winners!

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The League Secretary Dave Warren was invited to take part in his first ever Pro-Am this week in Ian Woosnam’s Charity Pro-Am at Archerfield! He partnered football legend John Colquhoun and the “UK Golf Guy” David Jones. Much to Dave’s delight, the Team’s Pro on day 1 was Sandy Lyle, the former Open and Masters Champion. Sandy was a great partner and was very helpful with some swing tips. The format was the best 2 net scores from 4 players, for Stableford points. A very average total of 80 points was the result, which put the team in mid-table. Those points were carried over to day 2 when the Team joined Paul Eales, a Pro on the Legends Tour. Paul had 7 birdies of his own and he was ably support by his 3 Team-mates who as a Team, scored 90 points, and tied for 1st place on a total of 170. On a count back, our Team were declared as the winners, and we received some excellent prizes. A big thanks are due to DJ Russell for inviting me.  Main picture L-R  David Jones, Dave Warren, Ian Woosnam, Sandy Lyle, Paul Eales, John Colquhoun, Dougie Donnelly. Sandy, Ian, and Catriona Matthew who was also playing in the event, signed some Masters, Solheim Cup and US Womens Open merchandise for prizes for Juniors.

 

Results ELJGL Champs 2021 + Photos!

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Apologies! – Calculation and publication of the results of the annual League Championships at Royal Musselburgh took longer than expected due to a technical issue over the accuracy of handicaps on the Golf Genius system. I wanted to make sure that everything was in order first and that trophies, prizes and vouchers are going to the correct Players! The Boys U16/U18 36-hole event was shortened to 18 holes due to the danger of thundery showers, some of which did occur. The event was a qualifier for the Justin Rose and Daily Telegraph Junior Golf Championship to be held at Walton Heath. I will nominate our Boy and Girl Scratch winners Luke and Lucy, and our Net winners Daryl and Rebecca, but sadly, their scores in relation to par may not be low enough to receive an invite.

Our thanks are due to Royal Musselburgh for hosting the event. RMGC Captains Stevie Gough and Helen Findlay presented the prizes to the various age groups. Many thanks to the helpers on the day, John Anderson, Sue Warren, Steve Austin, Stuart Findlay, Shona Paton and Calum and Cammie in the Pro Shop. Our new gazebo was very useful in the rain!

Scores for handicaps were submitted through Golf Genius on the day and your Index should have been updated at midnight! There were 59 Players in total. Trophies have been retained and will be engraved as soon as possible before presentation to you. For Players who were unable to be at the prize-giving, I have retained your vouchers and will pass these to you when I next see you at one of our events. Congratulations to the Players on the following list:-

 

Photos below- Players receiving their trophies from Stevie Gough or from Helen Findlay, Captains of Royal Musselburgh, or from Dave Warren, League Secretary.

Luke Greig

Lucy Morrison

Daryl Yuill

Brodie Cunningham

 

Gabriel Ridgeway

Finlay Langlands

Rebecca Wilson

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

Grant Forrest wins on Tour!

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Grant Forrest, now 28 years old, and a former Craigielaw Junior and regular Player in the East Lothian Junior Golf League, has become the first male Player since Raymond Russell of Longniddry in 1996, to come through the ranks of East Lothian’s Juniors and achieve success on a major Professional Tour, by winning the Hero Open at Fairmont St Andrews at the weekend. Here is a link to an article about Grant’s win, as published on the European Tour website, with some excellent photos. Our sincere congratulations go to him on this achievement, gained through his years of dedication to improving his game, and we wish him more deserved success in the future. Dave Warren, League Secretary.

 

 

ELJGL Scramble incredible scoring!!

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The ELJGL held a Texas Scramble fun event at Royal Musselburgh GC on Thursday the 22nd October, the final event of the season. Details of Teams and scoring can be seen on the Golf Genius portal here and you can see the Leaderboard on the GG App on your mobile phone using the access code ELJGLTS. There were 9 Teams of 4, including 1 Team of Girls. The live scoring facility on the Golf Genius App was in use by every group, and as Teams could view the live leaderboard scoring in full during their round, this added some intrigue to the event. We first have to report a truly sensational round by the group comprising Samuel, Oliver and Cameron Mukherjee, and Joe MacPherson, aged 15, 15, 12 and 14 respectively. With very little run on the fairways, they birdied the first 15 holes, then collapsed with 2 pars, but finished with a birdie at the 18th for a gross 54, net 50.8. A certified copy of the scorecard appears below. They were not the winners of this handicap event though, as the team in the last group (pictured below) comprising Byron Archibald, Dylan Brown, Hugo Alderson and Andrew Irvine came in with a gross 60, net 50.5, finishing 0.2 strokes ahead of the team comprising Adam Nichol, Adam Macdonald, Ben Austin and Harris Munro who had a gross 59, net 50.7. Our thanks are due to Royal Musselburgh and their Secretary David Cummings, and to the Professional Callum Smith, for making their excellent and historic course available. The League were indebted also for the help in running the event, provided by the local Convenors, Stuart and Helen Findlay, and from Shona Paton and Colin Leishman. Prizes were given to the winning Team on the day, and prizes for the 2nd place Team, and for the winning scratch Team, will be presented at some time in the future.  This was the final trial of the newly acquired Golf Genius scoring system which was very successful, with the help of our account manager Nick Stocking, and the Golf Genius system will now be brought into use in full during next season.

If you click on the photos below of the Players with the Clubhouse behind, you can see a slideshow of all the Players in a “Gallery.”

 

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The winners – L-R Hugo Alderson, Dylan Brown, Byron Archibald, and Andrew Irvine, with their prizes.

 

 

Grace rules supreme!

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Grace Crawford, aged 13, has won the ProDream USA 3 day event at Longniddry with a final round of 67 v the CSS of 72! Grace won by 7 strokes from her nearest competitor! Scores here. This follows only days after Grace won the East of Scotland Ladies Championships at the Jubilee Course at St Andrews, by 2 strokes from Clara Young. Scores here. In the ProDream USA Boys’ U16 competition, identical twins Oliver and Samuel Mukherjee had identical totals to finish joint 3rd. Well done all of you! You may still be able to read Martin Dempster’s article on Grace in the Scotsman here.

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