The annual Scottish Junior Team Championship (SJTC) was held on the 27th September 2o26 was kindly hosted by Murcar Links GC. Any thanks to them for all the help and hospitality which they afforded to all those taking part.
126 Players, from 18 Junior Teams, and 3 all-Girls Teams from Counties, competed. After the curtailed event, an extensive email was sent out to all interest parties, which is inserted below. We would like to thank all the Convenors who, despite the horrendous weather conditions, gave positive feedback about the event, together with notes of thanks when prizes were received.
“Dear Convenors and League Secretaries, thank you all for attending the SJTC at Murcar. The Players were very brave carrying on in the extreme weather conditions until the decision was made, by the Professional, after a request from the Course Superintendent had been received by him, to close the course for the day. At that stage, I went out on the course with the Pro and toured the back nine holes where we examined several greens which were already showing signs of not being playable, in so far as the holes were already filling with water, and on some greens there were already no places where relief could be taken, without having to putt through or chip over, the abnormal ground condition, formerly known as “Casual Water.” The Pro sounded the klaxon warning at several locations, and also verbally told Groups to finish playing, and not to bother marking their balls, as Play was abandoned for the day. The SJTC organisers immediately accepted the host Club’s decision, so we also had no option other than to abandon the Competition.One young Player gave up on the first hole after their drive as they were already too cold and wet to consider playing on. It should be remembered that some other competitors were as young as 8 and 9 years old and found it impossible to deal with the conditions.Some of the later Players in the draw commenced the long walk back to the Clubhouse of their own volition, before the Course was officially closed, as this was their choice and in the circumstances, a not unreasonable one. Of the 42 three-ball Groups in the field, 27 Groups had completed all 18 holes by the time the klaxon was sounded, and the timing of the announcement of the abandonment of the competition. Those Groups who finished their rounds, had all experienced some very bad weather during their play, but the later Groups experienced some absolutely horrific weather and were cold and soaking wet long before returning to the Clubhouse. For those later Groups many of their scorecards were illegible due to being soaked through, and in fact some had totally disintegrated, and certified scoring was only achieved by re-writing scorecards for the figures already on the the Golf Genius scoring system.Some Players who had good scores going for their Teams were unable even to play the last hole and finish their rounds. That would have been against the Rules, as the course had been officially closed.With such a complex competition, clearly there was absolutely no chance of finding another date, or even another venue, for replaying the event this year. This event takes at least 6 months to organise.We gave consideration to the 15 later Groups, comprising 45 Players, who constituted over 35% of the field. They had not been able to finish their rounds, and they had played in the very worst of the weather. We considered reverting the Competition to only 9 holes. We accept that reverting to a 9 hole format in such situations, was not stated before the event, in our Rules of the Competition.However, as 21 Teams with a total 126 Juniors had travelled so far, with many staying overnight beforehand, which all involved considerable expense, we made, in our view, the pragmatic and sensible decision to revert to a 9 hole competition, whether it was allowed or not, to create the situation where prizes could be awarded. We believed that the only fair way we could award the 86 prizes was to the leading Teams and Individuals with scores recorded for the front 9 holes, as all Players had the opportunity to play at least 9 holes before the course was closed.We appreciate that some of the earlier Players and Teams recorded some excellent scores over 18 holes, however, in our view, it would not have been fair to award them prizes where over 35% of the field did not have the opportunity to fully participate, due to the closure of the course. We sympathise with Players and Teams who led early on in the competition, who may have been affected by this. We did ask the Team Convenors to handle Players’ reactions sensitively if they had expectations of winning the event, and the 84 prizes, and ultimately, had won a lesser prize, or no prize at all!We now attach spreadsheets detailing the system by which the prizes have been awarded. Please remember that Players can only win one of the scratch or net prizes, should they feature in both, and they will have been awarded the the better of the two prizes for which they were eligible. Everything is explained in the attached document, the final individual placings. You can view there, how the count-back has been applied to tied scores. That method was stated in the Rules of the Competition. The Team totals and all prizes are listed in a separate document, also attached below.We would like to congratulate Lanark Juniors, who will receive the trophy, the Team medals, and some prizes. All Teams were asked to take a photograph with the trophy in case they had departed before any prize-giving. David McMillan the Lanark Convenor, was in my area recently, and I managed to get a photo of us (see below) with the trophy, which had been donated in 2017 by Ian Howarth, past President of the SGU, who also supplied medals for the 6 Players in the winning Team. David has promised to send me a photo of his Team with the trophy and medals.Great credit goes to Amy Marran of West of Scotland Girls who teed off at 1215, and scored a net 26 points on the front 9. We would also like to note that Euan Griffin of Bridge of Allan, who was in the 3rd last group at 1337, scored a remarkable net 21 points on the front 9, despite facing the very worst of the weather. In the scratch section, Archie Baker of Turnberry, scored a fantastic 20 scratch points on the front 9, and Phebe Pickett of West Links Juniors B, scored 15 scratch points on the front 9.The Leaderboards can be seen on the Golf Genius App, using the access code of CCZBTE. We attach a list of the winning Teams and scores, the Individual prizewinners, their scores, and all the prizes. Would Convenors please circulate this list to their Players. And we would also be happy for this report to be brought to the attention of the Players, Parents, and Team Helpers, as they see fit, as we hope that all concerned realise that the Committee did their best in exceptional circumstances, to ensure that a result, and the fairest result possible to the whole field, was achieved.”All of these prizes below have now been sent or delivered to the winning Clubs and Players.
