SJTC 2021 – Results and Report

Our most celebrated former League Junior Player, DP World Tour Professional Grant Forrest, has kindly donated some golf clothing from his sponsors which has hardly, if ever, been worn. The brand is mostly “Under Armour” with a few “Footjoy” items as well, and they all carry logos from “Orion Group” and/or “Arnold Clark.” The photographs below show what these items are. All of the 16 shirts, the 9 quarter-zip outer layer tops, and the 2 full-zip waterproof are medium size, and all the golf trousers are 32 waist, 32 leg. If you have that that waist size and leg length, let me know, and I will set aside a pair of trousers for you. All of these items will be available at our last 2 Match Days at Gifford and The Glen. If you are attending these events, and you are the correct size, Mens medium, you will be able to select a golf shirt or an outer layer top from the items on display. Our thanks are due to Grant and to Gordon Smith, Junior Convenor at Craigielaw, for passing these items onto the League. Grant also donated some used golf balls which have been passed onto one of the growing Junior Sections in the League for use in their basic coaching program.  I also attach below, an early photo of Grant when he was still a Junior League Player. We wish Grant every success for the rest of the season, including his defence of the Nexo Championships being played at Trump International from August 20 to 23. 

The ELJGL 54 hole Masters Strokeplay concluded at Longniddry on Sunday the 5th July when the 3rd round was completed. The previous 2 rounds had been played at Haddington on the 29th June. The table below which has been submitted to WAGR, shows the scratch scores for all 22 Boys who completed the 3 rounds. It had been planned to hold an equivalent Girls event but there were insufficient entrants to meet the minimum required by the R&A. Congratulations to Caleb Pickett who will gain his first WAGR points by completing all 3 rounds in a total of 225, 15 over the total Par of 210. The scoring limit for the event to be acceptable to WAGR is a total of 18 over par for 3 rounds, which total both Seb Harvey and Daniel Hogg managed to better! 

Our thanks are due to all at Haddington Golf Club, especially to the GM Alan Mackay, who along with F&B Manager Lisa, made sure we were all welcome.  John Murdoch and I would like to thank our usual helpers, Chris Barker, Gordon Smith, Steve Walker and Shona Paton. In the Team event, in which the best 4 out of 6 net scores count, West Links Bass with 145 points, were 8 points ahead of 2nd placed Glen who were on 137. The scores have been posted to WHS, the Orders of Merit have been updated, and along with the Leaderboards, can be seen on your Golf Genius App. The League Table has been updated, and can be seen on the right hand side of this website. West Links Bass now are leaders by a few points from The Glen. Team and best individual scores are inserted below. All the leaderboards of every competition we organise, and the Orders of Merit standings, can be seen on the Golf Genius App.

We had fine weather for a change, but the rough was very high so there was a scarcity of really good net scores, except for 8 year old Callum Laughtland who, playing for West Links Bass and in receipt of 24 shots, amassed 44 net Stableford points! His handicap has now been cut by 3 strokes! In the scratch section, Daniel Hogg playing for Gullane, with a gross 70, scored 37 points closely followed by Lewis Young on 36 scratch points. Callum therefore goes to the top of the Net Order of Merit with his 1st place finish, and Oliver Tate and Phebe Pickett, playing for West Links Bass and Fidra respectively, are close behind. Lewis Young of Craigielaw was next best in the net section with 38 points. Daniel now has 2 wins this season, and leads the scratch OOM by a margin of 24 points over Cameron Brown of Kilspindie. Prizewinners may collect their prizes at one of our next events.  

SLOW PLAY – Play was reasonably paced on Sunday at Haddington, but one group fell 30 minutes behind the match in front, thats maybe 3 holes! As all groups started their round 8 minutes after the group in front, groups should be finishing their rounds 8 minutes after the previous group has finished. If not, then the slower group are probably out of position, and in some cases, might be liable to penalties for slow play.  You must try to close the gap between you and the group in front.

BALL SEARCHING – Sometimes, when a ball is seen to disappear in deep rough, and a good shot with a provisional ball has been played, it might be better to accept that to continue with the provisional ball is the better option, and to not even search for the original ball. Even if you find your ball, it might take you 2 or 3 shots to advance your ball to a more playable position. So this is a judgement call whether you actually even start searching for a ball which, if found, will probably be unplayable. And you will undoubtedly delay the group behind, thus contributing to slow play!  Just take the penalty, and announce you are abandoning the search and continue with your provisional ball! Note – if you do find the original ball within 3 minutes of starting a search, and deem it to be unplayable, you are not allowed to continue with the provisional ball. 

NEXT EVENTS – We are back at Haddington on Monday the 29th June for our “Flagship” event – our Individual Championships at which there are many trophies and prizes up for grabs.  Entries close on Tuesday 23rd June at 6 pm. Please enter this, and any of our other events asap as there may have to be waiting lists for these events. The morning round in our Championships at Haddington is a qualifier for the Justin Rose Telegraph Golf Championship.

FOURBALL FUN DAY – The planned Match Day at Musselburgh on Wednesday the 1st July has been converted to a fun Fourball event starting about 1100. Please enter this if you can. 

MATCH DAYS 8, 9 AND 10. – Entries for all of these can now be made on the Golf Genius App 

Dave Warren Jt. League Secretary 07595 301425 djjwarren@me.com