Crieff Juniors won this year’s Junior Bell Salver in a fantastic match vs Kinross – played over a fabulous Auchterarder course.
It was so good to get this event up and running again this year – because this age/ability group have missed out the most due to the pandemic.
The format does not allow Cat 1 players – so HC Limits are from 6 to 36 – and is aimed at the development of competitive play for this group of players.
The round robin matches between all the clubs involved this year were very close and very competitive – with many of the matches and both semi-finals requiring extra holes to be played as sudden death play offs! The standard of golf on display and the spirit of the games are a credit to the players, their clubs, coaches and of course their parents – as these are the correct attitudes and behaviours that are an important part of playing within Perth & Kinross.
The final itself resulted in a 3-1 victory to Crieff, but this scoreline does not reflect that this was a very close, competitive game.
Callum Porter led the Crieff team out against Robbie Hepburn. Callum was giving a large amount of shots and Robbie took full advantage of these shots. Having witnessed his play today – his handicap will drop considerably in the remainder of the season.
The 2nd game also had Crieff’s Cameron Russell giving a number of shots to Kinross’ Joe Ponton. This was a very close game with both players producing some great golf – with Cameron always managing to keep his nose in front despite the shots. He was dormy playing the last – but was giving away a shot – but calmly made a great 3 to clinch the tie.
The 3rd game saw Crieff’s Gregor Warren take on Andrew Steele from Kinross. Again – this game has a number of shots being given to Kinross – but Andrew stuck to playing his own game (with a fantastic grip and swing) and he was making use of his shots, or wayward shots from Gregor, to keep it tight. Gregor eventually managed to get to dormy 2 and closed the game out on the 17th.
So with the match poised at 2-1 – all attention turned to the last game between Mac Sherwood and Oliver Jackson. There was only 1 shot in this game – and was probably the most even game of the day with both players playing golf that is not reflected in their handicaps. I predict that these handicaps will continue to tumble in the coming years as both players are only 14 years old. Mac managed to get to dormy 2 and he also closed out on 17th making the result a 3-1 victory to Crieff.
What was most pleasing was the spirit of the games. The boys were walking and talking all the way round – whilst it remained competitive and also frustrating when shots went astray – the atmosphere surrounding this final was an absolute pleasure to watch and those spectators were treated to a wonderful display of golf from both teams.
We must pay tribute to our generous hosts – Auchterarder Golf Club. The course was simply superb and the players loved the challenge of playing on rapid fast greens (between 11-12 on the stint I believe). To the members of Auchterarder – we thank you for accommodating our late request for this change of date and venue, the caterers did a great job and the spectators were well looked after as well.
We must also thank Eddie Russell from Salmoni Opticians who sponsored our Junior Bell Salver this year. Without the help and supoprt from local businesses – P&KCGU would not be able to put these events on – so from everyone involved – thank you very much.
