Several of Western Australia’s emerging young golfers recorded impressive results last week in two of South Australia’s premier junior tournaments.
Kooyonga Golf Course played host to the 54-hole South Australian Junior Amateur. The highly regarded Kooyonga layout is a permanent fixture within Australia’s Top-100 Courses and it proved to be a great test of golf for the juniors.
Tom Addy (Joondalup Country Club) played the best of the West Aussie contingent and strung together three strong rounds to finish in second at 2-under.
Gareth Steyn, a fellow Joondalup CC member started the tournament with a round of 70 (2-under). Steyn stumbled in the second round but recovered well on Tuesday to finish 3-over for the tournament in 5th position.
Aaron Hall (Melville Glades GC) started the tournament slowly, a by-product of just returning from two weeks overseas, but he shook off the rust and improved his scores every round to finish T6 at 4-over for the tournament.
On the girls’ side of the draw it was Yeah-Jin Lee (Royal Perth GC) who proved to be the best of the West Australian contingent. Lee started the tournament slowly but finished with a strong final round of +1 to earn herself a T8 finish.
Lake Karrinyup’s Sheridan Clancy finished 10th, just a few shots behind Yeah-Jin Lee.
Josh Robards (NSW) surged to victory on the back of a final round of 68 (4-under) to be crowned the 2020 SA Boys Junior Amateur Champion. On the girls’ side of the competition, it was Justice Bosio (Queensland) who took a commanding eight-shot victory.
After a well-earned rest on Wednesday, attention then turned to the magnificent Royal Adelaide Golf Club for the 72-hole South Australian Junior Masters.
Players were greeted with oppressive heat on Thursday morning and the strong northerly winds that were blowing from the desert only served to worsen the conditions.
Golf Australia staff made the call to shorten the day’s play from 36 holes down to 18, a wise decision as the mercury peaked at over 40 degrees in the late afternoon.
Play was again shortened to 18-holes on Friday due to hazardous air pollution as a result of the devastating and deadly fire on Kangaroo Island.
The wind picked up later in the morning and helped to clear some of the smoke which allowed play to commence after a few hours delay.
Aldrich Potgieter was in sublime form across both rounds of the South Australian Junior Masters as he romped to 9-shot victory with a total of 5-under across his 36 holes.
The long-hitting Joondalup talent mastered the Royal Adelaide layout and his name now sits alongside the likes of Adam Scott, Jason Day and Marc Leishman as a South Australian Junior Masters winner.
Yeah-Jin Lee backed up her 8th placed finish at Kooyonga with an impressive second place in the SA Junior Masters.
Lee played consistent golf all week long and she navigated the tricky Royal Adelaide layout well but couldn’t reign in Justice Bosio who capped off a stellar week by also winning the SA Junior Masters.
The strength of junior golf in WA was on full display with four boys in the top five at Royal Adelaide.
Tom Addy continued to impress and followed up his impressive work at Kooyonga with a T3 finish alongside fellow West Aussie, Ethan Lim (Melville Glades).
Lim rebounded well from a slow start early on Friday to finish 1-under through his final seven holes of the tournament to cling to a T3 finish.
Joondalup’s Gareth Steyn played in the final group on Friday and finished strongly to record his second top-5 finish in as many tournaments.
Royal Perth member, Amie Phobubpa also finished her week in Adelaide on a positive note with a 9th placed finish.
Interstate tournaments like these provide fantastic learning opportunities for our junior golfers as well as exposing them to some of the top courses in Australia. Experiences like these will hold our juniors in good stead as they look to progress their amateur careers in years to come.
Thanks to Golf Australia, Kooyonga Golf Club and Royal Adelaide Golf Club for their work, hospitality and support across the entire week.
GolfWA would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere gratitude to all emergency personnel who are risking their lives to fight these fires as well as our heartfelt condolences to all that have lost loved ones and property.
