ELJGL Player Evie McCallum  had a wonderful 9 stroke win in the 36 hole Junior Tour Scotland event at Kilspindie with a gross score of 139, 1 under par. Mollaidh Nicholson was in 2nd place in the scratch and Katie McKenzie was in 2nd place in the net. Scores here. Fergus Brown was T1 with gross scores of 69 and 65, with Brodie Cunningham just one stroke behind.   Scores here. The Tour now moves on to Fortress and Rosemarkie. The East of Scotland Girls recently held an event at Longniddry. We had 7 of our League girls competing. Mollaidh Nicholson won the best scratch with an 84, and Evie McCallum, with the next best scratch score of 85, won the net prize in her age group with a 77. The Lothians Boys Champion of Champions was held at Swanston on the 27th March. Congratulations to Sean Gallacher of Prestonfield (and Longniddry) who won with a gross 74. 

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)

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