Development Squad player Ryan Wong and Anne Fernandez won the Boys and Girls Gross division titles at the NSRCC Junior Open 2017 (“NSRCC”) competition that was held between the 30th May 2017 to the 1st June 2017.
This year’s NSRCC was a strokeplay event where 28 boys signed up for the Boys division and 13 girls signed up for the Girls division. Although the event had been originally planned to be an exciting out of the box team matchplay format, unexpected challenges had required a change back to the more conventional strokeplay format. Nevertheless we hope that NSRCC will still consider matchplay format in future years to give our juniors exposure to different types of competition.
The NSRCC was held at the NSRCC Kranji course, which being a Gary Player designed course, provided a stern test of golf to all the participants. The difficulty of the course was compounded by heavy rain on the first day which delayed start of play and caused the course fairways on subsequent days to be soggy in places and put emphasis on good ball striking and crisp chipping.
On the first day of competition, Ryan threw down the gauntlet by shooting a 4 under par 68 to separate himself from the chasing pack. When he followed up with an even par round of 72 in the second round, Ryan took an 8 shot lead into the third round over his nearest competitors, Development Squad players Andre Chong and Louis Tee, and a 10 shot lead over Development Squad player, Brandon Han.
On the final day of competition, the championship flight provided a stark contrast in styles with Ryan playing steady golf, despite his dependable hold off swing not performing at its usual high level, for the difficult and narrow first four holes at Kranji, culminating with a birdie on the challenging risk return dog leg right hole 4. Ryan continued to exchange birdies with bogies to turn around with a one over first nine, to show that he was not just protecting his lead from the previous day. Despite dropping 3 more shots on the back nine, there was no catching Ryan on this day with Ryan’s deft touch and scrambling getting him out of trouble on numerous occasions.
Meanwhile, Andre Chong and Louis Tee were trying hard to chip away at Ryan’s lead with Andre in particular trying to take advantage of his distance advantage and having numerous lip outs on the first nine culminating with a first nine score of one under. However Andre’s challenge for the lead effectively ended when he landed in the deep front greenside bunker on hole 12 which led to a double bogie although he made up for it with a magnificent eagle on the closing hole 18. Louis in the meantime was playing steady golf with his metronomic swing and unflappable temperament leading to even par at the turn. Louis was headed for an even par back nine until a pulled shot proved his undoing at Hole 18 which led to a double bogie on the last hole.
In the Girls competition, after the second day of competition, Margaret Fernandez with a cumulative score of 149 led by a shot over her sister, Anne Fernandez, and by two over Development Squad player, Inez Ng. The highlight of day two was the pitch in eagle from about 35 meters by Anne on Hole 4 after driving the ball approximately pin high on the short par 4.
On the final day of the Girls competition, Margaret’s lead quickly evaporated due to five bogies and a double bogie on the Girls first nine (Kranji’s back nine). Instead, Inez went briefly into the lead on the Girl’s first nine turning around with a first nine one under score of 35 (cumulative score after first nine at +6) followed by Elite Squad player Erika Layson, who turned around with a first nine score of even par 36 (cumulative score after first nine at +11).
In the end, Anne who turned around with a two over first nine score of 38 (cumulative score after first nine at +8), eventually romped home the winner with a second nine (Kranji’s front nine) score of three under 33, with 5 birdies offset against 2 bogies, with a one under final day score of 71 (and a cumulative 3 day score of 221). Inez, who must be ruing her chances of what might have been if not for a bogie, double bogie, bogie finish, came in second with a final day score of 74 (and a cumulative 3 day score of 225). Erika finished third with a final day even par score of 72 (with cumulative 3 day score of 227). Margaret, the second day’s leader, eventually finished fourth with a final day score of 80 (and cumulative score of 229).
Other than Best Gross prizes, NSRCC’s organizers also presented prizes for Best Nett Score. For the Boys Best Nett, the winner was Nicholas Jordan Sea (handicap 14) with a net score of 207 and the runner-up was Jason Kuk (handicap 3) with a net score of 220. For the Girls Best Nett score, the winner was Vanessa Chua (handicap 7) with a net score of 218 and runner-up was Joelle Tang (handicap 12) with a net score of 224.
In addition, there was a special hole in one award given to Phone Thant Ko Ko who scored his hole in one at hole 17 during the NSRCC practice round the previous week.
The event ended with a sumptuous lunch enjoyed by juniors and parents alike at which the prize awards ceremony was held. Awards were presented by NSRCC Green Committee member as well as Chief Referee for the event, Brian Tan. Thank you NSRCC for holding such an enjoyable event this year and we are all looking forward to an even greater event next year. – Kuk Hun Yi – SGA Marcom Sub-committee