East Lothian Junior Golf League
Supporting junior golf in East Lothian, Scotland
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)
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.
18th Sept 2021 – I have corrected the errors in the set up for awarding OOM points and this resulted in significant changes. Thanks are due to GolfGenius for resolving these.
You can NOW view the Scratch and Handicap OOMs on your Golf Genius App under “Season Points.” If you click on your names, you can see your positions in all the MDs in which you have played. You can also see on the “Standings’ how many points behind you are and how you can quickly catch up!
For our 2021 season, the League is using a new system on “Golf Genius” for our Scratch and Handicap Orders of Merit. Previously, Players’ best 6 points scores in the fields at all 10 Match Days counted for both Scratch and Handicap OOMs. However, this year only, this will be relaxed to 5 out of 10 due to the shortened season and several fixture clashes. The new system, now awards OOM points only to the top 25 Players at each Match Day. The top 25 Players in each of the Scratch and Handicap OOMs will receive points for their placings in the field, as per the table below. The Player(s) finishing with the most Gross and Net Stableford points at each MD will receive a bonus of 5 points. Every Player attending will receive 5 additional points for competing. The finishing positions at the first 8 MDs have now been calculated and can be seen your Golf Genius App. Boys and Girls are all competing for the same OOM prizes. Players tied with the same Stableford points at any MD will receive the same points in the OOMs as no count-back will be applied to the MD placings. There are trophies for the 2 winners and prizes and prize vouchers for 1st to 5th placed players in each of the Gross and Net OOM categories. In addition, there will be some prizes for the top Girls, U14 and U12 Boys in the table. Players cannot win more than 1 prize, and they will be given the best prize they could be given should they feature at the top in both OOMs. The positions of Players in the OOMs, will have a bearing on who receives invites to go an any future trips that League Players make to Pinehurst, but consideration will be given to both age and handicaps at the time of any trip, and Covid vaccination status. Players who have been before may receive another invite if the size of the party allows.
