Competitors in the Grand Final of the Golf 4 Women Salver at Desert Springs.

Northern Ireland ladies win Golf 4

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Women Salver at Desert Springs

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NEWS RELEASE
Lady golfers Heather Patterson and Louise Gaw – both members of Edenmore Golf Club in Northern Ireland – have won this year’s grand final of the Golf 4 Women Salver at Desert Springs, Europe’s only international award-winning luxury family resort and championship desert golf course in the Almanzora region of Almeria in south-east Spain.
This is the first year that players from Northern Ireland have competed in the annual Salver competition, its ninth year.
Runners-up were last year’s champions Linda Bowden and Viv Monument from Bowood Golf and Country Club in Wiltshire.
The tournament was played in American Greensome format. The winning score was 39 points and the runners-up scored 37.
The event was run in conjunction with the Douglas Bader Foundation. The charity, set up in memory of the limbless wartime flying ace to assist disabled people, celebrated its silver jubilee last year.
More than £20,000 was raised for the charity by this year’s Golf 4 Women Salver which was a year-long event involving more than 3,000 women golfers from over 300 clubs throughout the UK.
Each club held a qualifying tournament on its own golf course, producing two winners who qualified for one of 11 regional finals. The winners of each regional final, together with last year’s champions, qualified for the grand final at Desert Springs.
The 24 players who enjoyed an all-expenses-paid four-night stay at Desert Springs played two practice rounds prior to the final round.
The Desert Springs Golf Academy director and ladies golf co-ordinator Christine Langford, who hosted the final and regional events, has successfully pioneered Golf 4 Women in a bid to encourage more women to take up the sport.
Christine, a former Ladies European Tour player and leading golf coach, organises golfing holidays specifically tailored to the interests of lady players at Desert Springs. Also available are three-day tuition packages, with lessons by a professional in the Desert Springs Golf Academy, as well as three- and seven-day breaks. Some include health and beauty treatments in the Day Spa at Desert Springs.

+Pictured above right is Desert Springs Golf Academy director and ladies golf co-ordinator Christine Langford (centre) with the winners of the Golf 4 Women Salver, Heather Patterson (left) and Louise Gaw from Edenmore Golf Club, which is four miles east of Lurgan in Northern Ireland, according to the "Golfer's Handbook."

Harburn Golf Club professional Stephen Mills and clubgolf Level 2 coach Macrina Crawford with girls from the club’s girls-only clubgolf coaching course. Image by Rob Eyton-Jones.

Harburn out to encourage more girls to play golf

Harburn Golf Club, one of the first clubs in Scotland to join forces with the national junior golf programme, clubgolf, has started a new initiative to encourage more girls to play golf.
Over the last five years the West Calder club has transformed its junior membership and coaching through clubgolf, the partnership between the Scottish Golf Union, the Scottish Ladies' Golfing Association, the Professional Golfers' Association, the Golf Foundation and sportscotland created as a legacy following Scotland’s successful bid to host the Ryder Cup.
By having its PGA Pro, Stephen Mills, fully involved, the Club is ideally placed to coach children from complete beginner to advanced levels of the clubgolf programme.
In a thriving junior set up, the solitary blemish was that the number of girls attending weekly coaching was heavily outnumbered by boys.
It’s a statistic the Club, its Pro and its volunteer coaches have been quick to remedy. Last month Harburn held an open day for girls and the interest was so great that it has started a weekly girls-only coaching session.
“We have fewer than 30 girl members but we want a lot more so this is our ladies’ initiative for recruiting more,” said Harburn member and clubgolf Level 2 coach, Macrina Crawford.
“Twelve girls came for our open day and 11 have come back for the coaching which is an eight week course running through to the end of the year.
“Some of the girls had never picked up a club before and probably never had the chance to play golf until now. Our aim is to make it fun, they all get along very well because it’s an all girl group and they are learning better as a result.”
Through clubgolf partner, the Golf Foundation, Harburn was awarded a discretionary grant for £500, which supports Stephen Mills’ involvement in the girls coaching.
“Girls only coaching is certainly a good way to keep them involved,” said Stephen. “We are trying to make it a sport for everyone and we recognize that girls’ participation in golf could be a lot better.
“Some of these girls have already joined the Club which is very encouraging. We plan to run another girls coaching course in the spring and will get them out playing and hopefully get them handicaps.
“We’ve been giving clubgolf coaching for a number of years. It’s working in all levels and our members are very supportive. clubgolf is a great idea, especially getting golf into schools, which gives children who might not have had it the opportunity to play.”
This year some 38,000 P5 children were introduced to the game at school through the clubgolf’s introductory game, firstclubgolf. Over 1400 of them were from West Lothian.
“firstclubgolf is very popular with the children in my schools with over 100 children having an introduction this year,” said Lucy Goddard, Active Schools Co-ordinator for the West Calder area.
“Girls are one of our target groups to engage with more activity so it’s great that Harburn is promoting coaching for girls.
Rob Eyton-Jones
clubgolf Media Manager
http://www.clubgolfscotland.com/

ABU DHABI JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS

Tom Lewis and Alex Peters lead

boys/girls' sections

NEWS RELEASE
Day two of The Abu Dhabi Junior Golf Championship, presented by The Daily Telegraph, got underway with all juniors hoping to improve on their first-round scores. With eight of the nine girls bunched together with only three shots separating them, it was all to play for.
The conditions were similar to the first day, a little breeze and glorious sunshine, very different to the weather back home.
With Tom Lewis’ fantastic round of eight-under par 64 on Friday putting him way out in front of the rest of the boys’ field, he was definitely the one the others were striving to catch. With a seven shot lead heading into the second day, there was little pressure on Tom.
Joining him in the last group off the tee was Chris Lloyd, who started the day at one-under par, and Jordan Ainley, starting at one-over par.
Tom and Chris both birdied the first hole but Chris was the one with the momentum as he went on to birdie the first three holes and reduce the gap to five shots. However, Tom increased his lead again by the end of the first nine, with both boys going out in 33 (three-under par).
Few others looked like making progress on their score but Ross Mitchell, the leading qualifier, finished with a tidy two-under par 70 to finish the day in third position.
British boys' champion Tom Lewis completed his round in steady fashion with not one dropped shot on the back nine to finish the second round at 11 under par 133 overall.
The round of the day came from the sponsors’ invitation, Chris Lloyd who had a successive run of three birdies on the back nine to finish the day on seven-under-par 137, only four shots behind Tom. We should be in for an interesting round tomorrow.
In the girls’ competition, the best round of the day came from Alex Peters, pictured above by Cal Carson Golf Agency, one of this year's British girls' championship semi-finalists who is playing in her third Junior Championship. Alex shot a very steady one-under par 71 to get to a total of two-under par 142 and she lies four shots clear of the field.
Sophie Godley and Holly Clyburn remain in joint second place but rounds of 75 leave them with a lot of work to do on the final day to challenge Alex.
After completing their rounds, the juniors attended a Skills Challenge where the focus was on the short game – putting and chipping. David Howell, past player of the tournament and former World Number 10, was there to give advice to the juniors and to answer any questions they may have had. They played a number of putting and chipping games the competitive spirit remained but fun was had by all at the same time.


SCROLL DOWN FOR THE BOYS AND GIRLS' SECOND-ROUND TOTALS

Abu Dhabi Junior International Championship
Presented by the Daily Telegraph

SECOND-ROUND TOTALS

BOYS
Par 144 (2x72)
133 Tom Lewis (Welwyn Garden City) 64 69.
137 Chris Lloyd (The Kendleshire) 71 66.
144 Ross Mitchell (Sunningdale) 74 70.
148 Tomasz Anderson (Mill Green) 74 74.
149 Myles Angell (Clevedon) 76 73, Ben Herbert (Clacton-on-Sea) 74 75.
150 Ryan Fricker (Yelverton) 77 73, Jordan Ainley (Brokenhurst Manor) 77 73.
152 Jack MacKenzie (Princes) 75 77.
153 Ben Ludlam (Dunwood Manor) 79 74.
157 Tom Ibbertson (Coventry Hearsall) 82 75.
159 Joel Neale (United Arab Emirates) 75 84.

GIRLS
Par 144 (2x72)
142 Alex Peters (Notts Ladies) 71 71.
146 Sophie Godley (Lindrick) 71 75, Holly Clyburn (Woodhall Spa) 71 75.
147 Jess Wilcox (Blankney) 73 74, Heidi Baek (Felixstowe Ferry) 73 74.
148 Georgia Hall (Ferndown) 74 74.
152 Charlotte Austwick (Pike Hills) 74 78.
157 Hannah Turland (Tidworth) 74 83.
168 Michaela Chivers (Farrington) 83 85.