Junior's Noticeboard

As a thick covering of snow remains on both the golf course and the practice ground it is unlikely that we will be able to go ahead with the first of the SWL winter coaching sessions scheduled for tomorrow, Sunday 21 February. In view of this we have decided to postpone tomorrow's planned coaching.  The first session will now take place, weather permitting, on Sunday 28 February @ 9.30 am.

The junior winter series competition that was due to take place tomorrow afternoon has also been cancelled.

In 2010, we are looking to strengthen and develop our SWL squad by giving as many of our juniors as is possible the opportunity to benefit from free coaching from Steve Yates and/or James Crompton and, hopefully, go on to represent the club in South Warwickhsire League matches.

The SWL coaching sessions will take place on the following dates:

The other clubs in the South Warwickshire League are Coventry Finham, Coventry Hearsall, Leamington & County, Nuneaton, Rugby and Stratford-upon-Avon.  Between Easter and September we play a home and away match against each of the clubs in the league.  The matches normally take place on Sunday afternoons.  The SWL represents a great opportunity to play other courses in the area and to develop your matchplay skills.  The season conludes with the SWL Finals Day which, this year, is being hosted by Kenilworth GC on Sunday 26 September 2010.

If you were 18 years of age or under on 1 January 2010 (you do not even have to be a junior!) and have a handicap of 28 or below and would like to be part of the SWL squad for the coming season we would like to know as soon as possible.  So, please add you name to the list that is posted on the junior notice board without delay or contact Richard Lane.

The annual junior presentation dinner takes place on Friday 20 November starting at 7.00 pm for 7.30 pm.

All juniors, together with their friends and family, are welcome to attend so please add your name and number of people attending to the list on the junior noticeboard in the clubhouse or e-mail the details to richard@the-lanes.co.uk.

This year's menu, priced at £10 per head, is roast beef with Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes & vegetables followed by apple pie & custard.

Played for the first time in 2008, the Carrick Cup is competed for between the junior South Warwickshire League team and the men's Mid Warwickshire League team.  Last year the juniors suffered a heavy defeat and were keen to seek their revenge this time around. 

With the first three pairs playing off scratch there were good wins for Rob Owens over Ben Hammond and Alice Young produced the best golf of the day to beat Dean Sparrow.  The only point for the Mid Warwickshire League in the scratch games was won by James Lammond who came back from two down to overcome Daniel Lane.  The remaining matches, played off handicap, saw James Leggitt halve with David Howe whilst Dom Butler beat Maurice Langman and Jay Underwood beat Tony Hammond who kindly stood in at the last minute for the Mid Warwickshire League team.

The final result was a win for Kenilworth's juniors by 4.5 points to 1.5 points.

Our thanks go to our President, Mike Carrick, who not only donated the trophy for this event but also kindly sponsored a BBQ after the match.

This winter we are going to try running a monthly nine hole junior competition so that juniors will have a chance to play some competitive golf over the winter months.  Whenever possible, these will be qualifying competitions so will give those taking part an opportunity to get their handicaps cut.

These ‘winter series’ events will all start at 1.00 pm and take place on the following dates –

• Sunday 15 November 2009
• Sunday 13 December 2009
• Sunday 17 January 2010
• Sunday 21 February 2010
• Sunday 21 March 2010

An entry sheet for the first event has been posted on the junior noticeboard. Please add your name if you wish to play.

Robert Owens proved the importance of consistent play over 36 holes to add the Junior Club Championship to the Men's Club Championship title that he won a little more than a week earlier.

An opening round of 76 left Robert Owens trailing Mike Antona by two shots after eighteen holes with Daniel Lane a distant third following a round of 83. In the second round Mike struggled to maintain his form and after a poor start slumped to a score of 79.  Meanwhile, Daniel was trying to recover lost ground and produced the best score of the day with a gross 73 to close the gap on the two leaders.  Ultimately, however, the day belonged to Robert Owens, a birdie on par 5 16th hole extended his lead to two shots over Mike Antona and although Mike hit back  on the 17th with a birdie of his own Robert held his nerve to sink a testing five foot putt on the final hole for a par to match his first round score of 76 and to secure the title by a one shot margin.

The results can be found by clicking here.

Robert Owens and Daniel Lane were selected to represent Warwickshire U16’s in their match against Staffordshire at Uttoxeter Golf Club over the weekend.

The format for the county matches is eighteen holes foursomes matchplay in the morning followed by singles matchplay in the afternoon.  Although Warwickshire suffered a narrow defeat losing by 8.5 to 9.5 points, both Robert and Daniel won both of their games to claim four points for Warwickshire.

The inaugural Kenilworth Junior Masters, sponsored by the Golf Society of Great Britain, was held on Wednesday 15 April 2009. This competition saw 53 junior golfers, ranging in age from six to thirteen years old, from across the UK competing for the John Butler Trophy.

An early morning thunderstorm caused the start of the competition to be delayed by 20 minutes but more significantly left the course playing quite long as a result of the soft fairways.  Coupled with a strong wind for much of the morning, the conditions made low scoring difficult.

The best score of the day was a gross 78 from 12 year old Lewis George, a 6 handicap golfer from Crewe Golf Club.  Lewis was a shot behind home favourite, Daniel Lane, playing the last hole but Lewis secured a birdie on the par 3 eighteenth hole after a six iron tee shot left him a six foot birdie putt which he duly holed to finish seven over par.  Meanwhile, Daniel, playing off a handicap of 7, finished his round on the par 4 ninth hole where a visit to the greenside bunker resulted in a dropped shot for a round of 79.  Third place went to William Aldred, handicap 5, of Mid-Herts Golf Club who was a shot further back with a gross score of 80.

The best nett score was recorded by Kenilworth's Bruce Fitzpatrick who scored an excellent 41 stableford points (five under par) playing off a handicap of 18.

The full results can be viewed by clicking here.

Three of Kenilworth's juniors, Robert Owens, Daniel Lane and Alice Young were in action on Tuesday 14 April at Ingon Manor which hosted the 2009 Warwickshire Schools Championship.  Robert Owens was the best of the three finishing strongly with a birdie on the last hole for a four over par gross score of 76.  For a period of time it looked like Robert would be in a play off to decide the winner of the championship until Copt Heath's Patrick Skakel came in with a gross 75 to win by one shot.  Robert took second place on a count back after four other players also finished on 76.

Well done Robert!

The Spring 2009 edition of the KGC Junior Section newsletter is now available to download by clicking here.

THE annual junior dinner and presentation took place at the club on 21st November. The evening, which attracted a record attendance of 88 guests, was a celebration of the outstanding achievements of Kenilworth's gifted juniors at club, county and national level throughout the season.

The junior section at the  club, which currently boasts 72 members, continues to go from strength to strength and with many of the younger members picking up major trophies on the night the future of the Kenilworth's juniors continues to look bright.

For the last 20 years John Butler has been the driving force behind junior golf at Kenilworth  and it was fitting that his period as chairman came to an end at the dinner.

John Butler has served Kenilworth Golf Club as both captain (1998) and President (2004- 2007) but no one would doubt that his real passion has always been the promotion of junior golf both at Kenilworth and more widely.

Under John Butler's chairmanship Kenilworth's junior section has thrived and the status of junior golf developed beyond recognition.

One his greatest achievements was to steer Kenilworth Golf Club successfully through the process of becoming the first club in Warwickshire to be awarded the coveted Golfmark award - even now only three other clubs in Warwickshire have met the exacting standards required.

Next year Kenilworth  will host the inaugural Kenilworth Junior Masters, one of a series of six events across the United Kingdom sponsored by the Golf Society of Great Britain, for junior golfers of all abilities under the age of 14.

In recognition of the outstanding contribution made by John Butler the trophy for this prestigious event has been named after him and was unveiled by current president Mike Carrick, at the junior dinner.