HSBC Youth Golf 2017’s first leg kicked off to a great start with Andre Chong winning his third HSBC Youth Golf Challenge in a row and Nicole Mok winning her second in a row by a whopping margin of 17 strokes over her nearest competitor.
HSBC Youth Golf Challenge 2017 First Leg was held on the Vanda and Dendro courses at the Orchid Country Club between the 20th to 22nd June 2017 and involved 73 participants competing in Boys and Girls A division (15- 17 years of age) and B division (12 – 14 years of age).
In the Boys A division, on the first day of competition, Development Squad player Andre Chong established himself as the front-runner by carding a 5 under 68 on the par 73 course, which included 5 birdies on his front nine. After the second day’s play, Andre took a 3 shot lead over his nearest challenger, Baek In Su. On the third and final day, Andre played a very controlled one under round by leveraging his accurate distance of the tee and birdieing four out of the five par 5s on the Vanda/ Dendro course, to win by a comfortable 6 shots over his nearest challenger, Charles Alliston.
In response to a query on his strategy to play this competition, Andre responded “ I was just very patient with regards going for my shots and accepting the outcomes (on whether or not I made birdies). I also knew that I could be quite aggressive as the rough here is not that penal”.
In the Girls A division, Elite Squad player Nicole Mok showed her mettle and composure by carding an even par round on the first day and opening up a four shot lead. Nicole followed up with a 2 under and 1 under rounds to card an overall 3 under aggregate score for the tournament, and win by a landslide margin of 17 strokes over her nearest competitor. Nicole later informed that her strategy had been to just hit fairways and greens and grind out the result, thus showing that there are different ways to score low on this course.
Nicole also had the following advice for the younger girls aspiring to follow in her footsteps, “The most important is to set your goals, be focused and work towards them. I started playing competitive golf relatively late and work very hard towards my goals.”
The situation was different in the Girls B division, where the leaderboard was always tightly bunched over the three days. On the first day, Development Squad player Hailey Loh and Margaret Fernandez both played a 3 over 76 to share the lead. On the second day, Hailey carded an even par round to take a 3 stroke lead over Development Squad player, Inez Ng, into the final round. On the final day however, the positions all changed again with Margaret playing a one over 74 to win by one stroke over her sister, Anne Fernandez, who carded a one under round of 72, leaving Development Squad players Shannon Tan and Hailey Loh in 3rd and 4thposition respectively.
In the Boys B division, Sean Lee from Keppel Club took an 8 strokes lead over his nearest competitor, Hoo Fang Wei, after the second day into the final round. Even though Fang Wei narrowed the gap during their first nine holes of the final day, Sean was not seriously threatened and managed to still close while still maintaining the same margin of 8 strokes at the end of play.
At the prize giving ceremony cum lunch, SGA organized a short talk on sports injuries by Dr Dinesh Sirisena. The prize giving was graced by Mr. Sourik Sinha, Vice President of Brand Governance from HSBC, the tournament’s major sponsor, who gave away the prizes to the winners of the event.
In closing, we thank Orchid Country Club for their hosting of this event and in particular for allowing parents to walk the course and witness their children in action. Nicole Mok also articulated a special thanks to Mari and Kian Hui of SGA “who are the first to arrive and the last to leave (the tournament)” and who took the initiative to purchase and deliver hot milo to the younger contestants on course to warm them up when it rained on the first day. It is acts of kindness like these that augur well for our junior tournaments going forward. – Kuk Hun Yi – SGA Marcom Sub-committee
| Division | Name | Homeclub | HI | Div | 3 Days Gross | |
| ‘A’ – 15 to 17 years old | ||||||
| Boys | Winner | Andre Chong | SGA/SSS-KepC | 0.7 | A Boys | 214(68,74,72) |
| 1st Runner-Up | Charles Alliston | SGA/SSS-SelCC | 0.8 | A Boys | 220(71,76,73) | |
| 2nd Runner-Up | Brandon Han Zhen Guang | SGA-NSRCC | 1.4 | A Boys | 223(74,73,76) | |
| 3rd Runner-Up | Baek In Su | OCC | 1.4 | A Boys | 224(72,73,79) | |
| Girls | Winner | Nicole Mok | SGA/SSS-KepC | 2.2 | A Girls | 216(73,71,72) |
| 1st Runner-Up | Denise Wong | SGA/SSS-WGCC | 4.0 | A Girls | 233(79,75,79) | |
| 2nd Runner-Up | Rachel Maswi | OCC | 1.4 | A Girls | 234(78,76,80) | |
| 3rd Runner-Up | Khoo Qi Lin Vanessa | SGA-SelCC | 4.0 | A Girls | 235(80,79,76) | |
| Division | Name | Homeclub | HI | Div | 3 Days Gross | |
| ‘B’ – 12 to 14 years old | ||||||
| Boys | Winner | Sean Lee | KepC | 3.1 | B Boys | 232(81,72,79) |
| 1st Runner-Up | Hoo Fang Wei | NSRCC | 8.5 | B Boys | 240(83,78,79) | |
| 2nd Runner-Up | Nicholas Jordan Sea Cheng Feng | GAZ | 12.1 | B Boys | 243(82,80,81) OCB | |
| 3rd Runner-Up | Eng Wei Jin | SSS-SelCC | 6.0 | B Boys | 243(80,81,82) | |
| Girls | Winner | Margaret Leyi Fernandez | SICC | 0.2 | B Girls | 226(76,76,74) |
| 1st Runner-Up | Anne Leqi Fernandez | SICC | 0.3 | B Girls | 227(79,76,72) | |
| 2nd Runner-Up | Shannon Tan | SGA-KepC | 2.8 | B Girls | 228(77,77,74) OCB | |
| 3rd Runner-Up | Loh Suanne Hailey | SGA-SelCC | 1.1 | B Girls | 228(76,73,79) | |
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21 June 2017
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20 June 2017
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Please Click H E R E for Round 1 Results of A Boys Div
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19 June 2017
The 1st Leg of the 2017 HSBC Youth Golf Challenge series will be played at the Orchid Country Club’s, Vanda/Dendro Course from 20 – 22 Jun 17. The tournament is open to boys and girls who are Singapore citizens or permanent residents between the ages of 12 and 17 years as at 23 June 2015 and with a USGA Handicap Index of 20.0 or lower for boys and 27.0 or lower for girls, as at 1 May 2017. The HSBC YGC will be decided by stroke play over three rounds of 18 holes. A cut will be made after 36 holes for the top 60% players (including tie/ties) who shall qualify for the third round. The player with the lowest gross aggregate for the three rounds in each Division will be the winner.
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