Junior AM at Port Kembla
It's Subaru State Championships week and that means time for the annual JNJG Junior AM. This years event took place in perfect conditions at Port Kembla Golf Club. Last year the Junior AM was successful in raising $14,000 for junior development in the Illawarra. This year was again a success with $8,500 raised at the Junior AM alone and $4,800 raised through a raffle amongst Illawarra golf clubs.
Thirty one groups of three players were partnered up with a junior golfer for a fun Ambrose event. The groups were made up of Corporate Sponsors, Golf Illawarra DGA clubs and JNJG supporters. The course was in fantastic condition and the weather was pretty stunning as well.
The overall scratch winners on the day were the team from Warilla Grove of Robby Stephenson, Anthony Brunero, Robert Birkin and junior Cassidy Graham (The Links Shell Cove) with a fantastic score of 16 under par 56. Only 2 shots further back was the group of Peter Adams, Graham Hann and Bob Brown from Pendle Inn with junior Corey Jones (Pymble).
The nett winners for the day came from the host course Port Kembla. Club Professional Kieran Bisch played with three of his juniors Jake and Thomas Popovski and Eddie Ward. They had a fantastic nett score of 55.75 for the round. The team from the Nomads was David Twycross, Barry Schutte and Ian Foulis paired with talented junior Celina Yuan to come runner up in the nett on a score of 55.875.
The prize of the day was awarded to the best nett from an Illawarra club team. This year it was taken out by Kiama Golf Club with their team of Elle Sandak, Kelley Greaves, Bronwyn Tory and junior Sarah Johnson with an amazing nett score of 54.5. For their win the club was awarded $500 to put towards their club junior program while Sarah received a $500 voucher to put towards her golf development.
There were also a number of Nearest-the-Pins and Long Drives, these were taken out by the following players:
NTP: Mens: Peter Van Wegen, Ladies: Sally Pinkard, Junior Boys: Jason Hong, Junior Girls: Sarah Johnson
Long Drive: Mens: Lincoln Tighe, Ladies: Tahnia Ravnjak, Junior Boys: Kyle Kirkland, Junior Girls: Stef Hall
The success of the 2014 Junior AM meant JNJG Territory Manager Tanya Smith and Golf Illawarra were able run a 10 week MyGolf Program which saw 83 youngsters get involved in golf across a range of Illawarra clubs. The children thoroughly enjoyed the program and capped it off with a fun golf gala afternoon at The Grange to celebrate their completion of the program. Golf Illawarra have now introduced an Illawarra Beginners Program, which many of these juniors have already signed up for. Many parents are also eager to give golf a go and have signed up to take part in the program as well. These are all great signs for the sport in this region and it is hoped that the money raised at this years Junior AM will further enhance the development process.
JNJG would like to thank all of those generous sponsors who supported the event including Golf NSW, Fenton and Associates, Warilla Grove and Destination Wollongong plus many many more. We would also like to thank the Illawarra clubs who were involved in the day and helped raise funds for the junior programs at their respective clubs. Special thanks to Port Kembla for hosting the day and making us all feel very welcome. We certainly hope to continue this event in the next region to host the Subaru State Championships and further our support of junior development in NSW.
