Singaporeans came out tops in 6 out of the 7 divisions in the inaugural 2018 Optimist International Junior Golf Championship – Singapore Qualifiers, with 3 divisional winners coming from the SGA Junior Squad (JS) and 2 divisional winners from the SGA Development Squad (DS). The winners and runners up from every division of the qualifiers would be invited to participate in the Optimist finals in the US later in the year.
The Optimist Singapore qualifiers were held on the 27 – 28 March 2018 at the pristine Sentosa New Tanjong championship course, which was the same hallowed grounds for world class events such as the Women’s Amateur Asia – Pacific 2018 championships and the HSBC Women’s World Championship 2018, held only recently. All these would not have been possible without the support of Sentosa Golf Club President Mr Ronny Tan, Captain Mr Vernon Khoo and General Manager Mr Andrew Johnston. This inaugural competition attracted 107 participants playing in 7 different age – group divisions playing from five different tee-boxes set up on the New Tanjong course.
On the first day of competition, the weather was not cooperative with overcast skies and lightning sighted early in the morning before the earliest flights teed off. Fortunately, the lightning cleared for the flights to begin teeing off on schedule. The degree of difficulty of playing the Tanjong course was exacerbated midway through the morning when the heavy lashing rain came down and the winds picked up to causing many of the participants umbrellas to be upended and some umbrellas to even fly into the greenside ponds and canals on the course. The difficult conditions resulted in six hour rounds for some of the participants even though there was no rain stoppage.
Notwithstanding the inclement weather, the juniors regardless of age manfully soldiered on to complete their rounds. Amazingly, Justin Kuk (from Boys 15 – 17 division) shot a score of 2 under 70, and Marcus Lim (of Boys 15 – 17 division) and Anne Fernandez (from Girls 10 – 12 division) shot even par 72s, on the difficult first day of competition. Across several of the divisions, the competition was intense with only a couple of strokes separating the leader from the second placed competitors.
On the final day, the weather smiled on Sentosa and the morning brought bright and sunny skies. As the warm temperatures turned blisteringly hot as the day wore on, so did the competition. In the Girls 10 – 12 division, winner Anne Fernandez and her closest challenger Angel Lim of DS, playing from the green tees, shot 4 under 68 and 3 under 69 respectively on the second day (which would eventually be the lowest rounds of the competition). In the Girls 13 – 14 division, runners up Shayne Lim of JS caught up to within one stroke of winner, Rachel Sim of JS, by hole 16 but unfortunately a double bogey at hole 17 put down Shayne’s hopes of overtaking Rachel.
Similarly in the Boys 12 – 13 division, eventual runners up Malaysian Poon Jia Hao’s challenge to winner Daryl Low of JS petered out when Poon bogeyed both holes 17 and 18. In the Boys 14 – 15 division, runners up Justin Chan of Malaysia even held the lead temporarily at the cross over before eventual winner Sean Lee of DS shot an even par second nine to close with a second day score of one under 71 and take the title. In the oldest Boys 16 – 18 division, winner Justin Kuk of DS and Marcus Lim of Malaysia were tied at even par on the sixth hole before Marcus suffered a double par on the par five 8th hole to end his hopes of wresting the lead. Justin exercised good course management and composure thereafter to keep his competition at bay and finished at even par for the tournament with runners up Malaysian Lee Chong Li at five over.
This inaugural Optimist Singapore qualifier was greatly enjoyed by participants who were able to play on the excellent conditions on the New Tanjong course and parents who were able to witness their children perform. The prize giving ceremony cum lunch was held immediately after the championship where SGA President Ross Tan and SGA Executive Board member Mrs Lyn Sen awarded the trophies to the winners and runners up for the various divisions.
It was heart-warming to see our juniors gut out the difficult playing conditions and still come back strongly. The work that SGA team and the squad players have put in is beginning to show fruits. A word of thanks to SGA and the Sentosa Golf Club for holding this inaugural event and to continue to give our juniors the opportunity to be exposed and to compete. Looking forward to next year. – Kuk Hun Yi
For more pictures from the competitions click HERE