Welcome to this weeks newsletter.

 

It was our Junior Presentation Evening last Saturday evening which of course was to celebrate the success of our Juniors here at Thurlestone. It was a great evening and the Clubhouse was buzzing with Parents and Juniors who enjoyed a fantastic buffet before the prize giving.

Jack and I started the evening off talking about the success of our Junior Academy in 2016. We now have 5 groups of Juniors coming every Saturday during the school term time, with a mixture of boys (75%) and girls (25%) aging from 5- 14 years. Certificates and wrist bands were given out to our youngest golfers for completing their first level of the Golf Foundations Junior Golf Passports.

Jack and I hosted a 6 hole Texas Scramble competition that afternoon for all of the Academy Juniors who weren't playing in the main Junior Competition. For many of the children this was their first ever competition and indeed the first time they had played 6 holes!

The winning Team with a score of 26 shots over the first 6 holes was Emma White (Aged 9), Lucy Rossiter (Aged 13), Joey Hutchison (Aged 5) and Paddy Cleary (Aged 9) who won by 6 shots!

Junior Organiser, Nigel Whelan congratulated the Juniors on a very successful 2016 and for getting to 4 County Finals.

Nigel also announced that Fin Whelan and George Messias had been selected for the Devon U16 County Squad and Toby White and Alfie Messias had been selected for the Devon U14 County Squads for 2017.

George Messias stole the show collecting a multitude of Trophies on the evening. George has put an enormous amount of practice and effort into his golf this year reducing his handicap by 10 shots to a 9 handicap. 

Thurlestone Juniors have collectively reduced their Handicaps by over 120 shots this year which is a staggering statistic. This was largely down to Noah Mulligan who reduced his handicap from 45 to 24 and Lucas Bellamy from 35 to 20! 

The evening was wrapped up with Junior Captain George Holland thanking Jack and myself and the Junior Committee (especially Liz Line), for all their hard work and enthusiasm in 2016. George also thanked the Club and it's members for its continued support of the Junior section. 

The Junior section is truly thriving at Thurlestone for which the Club can be proud of, and I have no doubt that it will only go from strength to strength in 2017.