The Scottish Junior Team Championships have been organised by our League since 2017, and the 2023 event has now been held at Elderslie GC, near Paisley. Both West Links Junior Teams, Bass and Fidra, took part in the field of 20 Teams, each with 6 Players. All the scores, both Team and Individual, can be seen on the free Golf Genius App by signing in with the code JMTJYY. Below is a copy of the e-mail sent to the host Club, together with a photo of all the prizes, a photo of the winning Team Braehead with the donor of the Trophy Ian Howarth, past President of the SGU, and Douglas Ross, Captain of Elderslie, and lastly a list of winners and prizes. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The attached table shows the final positions in the ELJGL Scratch and Net Orders Of Merit for 2024. Points are awarded for the best 6 finishing positions out of the 10 Match Days (MDs) we hold over 10 different courses in “Scotland’s Golf Coast.

These events are free to enter for Junior Members of Clubs in East Lothian so thanks to all our Member Clubs – Musselburgh, Royal Musselburgh, Longniddry, Kilspindie, Craigielaw, Gullane, North Berwick, Glen East Links, Haddington, Gifford and Dunbar.

For the 2nd year running Jack Collingswood of West Links Bass was the winner in the scratch OOM with 3 wins in 7 appearances out of the maximum 10. In his 6 counting events, Jack was never lower than tied 3rd. Remarkable consistency over 7 different courses! Good course management must be a strong feature in Jack’s game. Ben Austin of Haddington was only a few points behind Jack before MD10 but he couldn’t catch Jack. Fraser Walters of Craigielaw, with only 6 appearances in MDs, was in 3rd place with Kai Laing of Dunbar and Harris Munro of West Links Fidra filling 4th and 5th paces.  The top 4 Players all now play off + handicaps, with Harris on 1.0 but that is dropping fast!

Our 10 MDs on 10 different courses are good opportunities to reduce your handicaps as has been proved in the net OOM this year by our 13 year old winner, Archie Brownlee, of Haddington GC, who was one of only 5 Players who played in all 10 MDs this season! Archie started at MD1 with a handicap of 26.4 and after 3 early wins at MDs 2, 3 and 5, Archie’s handicap came tumbling down and now Archie is now playing off 9.3, a reduction of 17 strokes in one season! At MD10, Archie received 20 points for his T11 finish, and because his closest challenger 13 year old Rory Laird, only 5 points behind Archie from just 6 appearances was unable to play in MD10, Archie was able to relax and hang on to the top spot! Rory’s handicap has tumbled from 22.2 at MD3 to 12.8! Stella Walters of Craigielaw, aged 11, played in 8 MDs and had 6 top tens to take 3rd spot. Stella’s handicap had reduced from 7.1 at MD1 to 4.4 now, which must now make Stella one of the best U12 Players in the UK! Luke McLaughlin age 14 of West Links Bass, and Callum Martin age 12 of Gifford, were close behind in 4th and 5th spots. All these young players doing so well, is a good omen for the future of the League. 

Thanks to all 121 Players who played in our MDs and other events this year with an average turnout of 61 at each MD, and we had 70 players at our annual Championships. These are record high turnouts for any season so far, since the League changed to its current format to Strokeplay, and introduced scratch and net Orders of Merit. The full OOM results can be seen on the Golf Genius App under “Season Standings Points.”

Well done to our winners! I will be e-mailing the winners with details of how to transmit the prize vouchers to you asap. If you are in the North Berwick area, let me know and you can collect your voucher from me.

Dave Warren 07595 301425

The winners! (L-R) Archie Brownlee and Jack Collingswood.

 

 

After Grace Leslie’s Mum bid successfully for a golf package at an auction to raise money for the Doddie Weir Fund, two of our Juniors, Chloe Adam and Grace, then had a wonderful experience playing over the Old Course at St Andrews recently. Both of their Dads were there with them, but only George Adam played. Their 4th Player was former Open Champion – Paul Lawrie!  

Several of our Juniors were involved in playing 4 rounds of Golf on the 21st June, our “Longest Day,” to raise funds for charity. This link takes you to the JustGiving page for 4 of our Players, Kate Thomson, Joe MacPherson, Scott McAdam and Rory Leitch. Other Juniors were involved in similar challenges as well, but I have no further details. At the link you can see a short story about their efforts, and the target they set. They are, at 8 pm on the 2nd July, only £24 short of their £2,000 target. I attach two photos taken before and after the last of their 4 rounds, which was played at North Berwick. The first 3 rounds were at Dunbar, Kilspindie and Haddington. Thanks to those courses for allocating them tee times. And well done all 4 of you. 

 

All Players, as part of our Safeguarding Policy, please download this file, sign it, and return it to me, preferably by scanning or photographing it, and emailing it back to me asap. If you have recently done this, then you can ignore this request. Thanks. Dave 

ELJGL Code of Conduct for Juniors 2024

 

Jack Rogan, pictured with the League Secretary, Dave Warren, has stepped down from his role as Joint Secretary of the League as he is relocating to the North of Scotland. Jack is a former player for Longniddry in the Junior League, and represented the League in The Watson Cup Match against South Carolina. After graduating from St Andrews, where he played a lot of golf on the fabled Old Course, Jack returned to the East Lothian area to work, and he became the Junior Convenor for Longniddry. Jack then volunteered to assist Dave in the organisation of League events, including the County Cup. We thanked Jack at the Leagues’ recent AGM where he was printed with a pin flag for the 18th hole at the World’s most famous course.

 

This link leads to the Girls’ fixture list for 2024, which is the Centenary Year for the Ladies! Girls who are members of East Lothian Clubs may be able to play in these Girls’ events, and also in the Ladies’ events included below if they join up. In addition, the Ladies hold three events for Girls, the Spring, Summer and Autumn meetings, in conjunction with three of the ten East Lothian Junior Golf Leagues’ Match Days at Kilspindie, Royal Musselburgh and Gifford – see League fixture list here or on our Home Page. Attached is a copy of the County Ladies’ Fixture List as at 22nd January 2024. Please see the Ladies’ website for their fixture card here, where updates will appear. Their Home Page is here.

We have concluded the OOMs for 2023, after MD10 at The Glen. You can see the full list here on your Golf Genius App, by viewing “Standings” under “Season Points.”  The scoring was based on Players’ 6 best placings out of the 10 MDs. Well done to Jack Collingswood for leading the way in the Scratch version, winning by only 15 points from Michael Coulter, who logged 3 wins from his 6 appearances, but Michael could not discard any of his poorer rounds. Jack played in 9 MDs, and had 4 wins, but he was able to discard 3 of his poorer rounds. In the Handicap section, Rory McArdle was victorious but only by 4 points from both Kole Henderson and Sam Ratcliffe. Anyone with only 5 appearances could not count in the totals, so please try to play in as many events as you can next year! The generous prize list can be seen below. Trophies have been engraved and delivered to the winners. Dave Warren.

 

Photo of the Order of Merit trophy winners and other prizewinners who were present at the Prize-giving. L-R Luke McLaughlin, Rory McArdle, Jack Collingswood, Andrew Irvine, Harris Munro, all West Links Juniors Angus Waddell, Gullane, and Finn Ryan, Glen.