Singapore juniors from the SGA Development and Junior Squads took top honours and podium finishes in several divisions in the recently concluded Himbara World Junior Golf Championships 2018 (Himbara) (formerly known as Ciputra World Junior Golf Championships) held at the Robert Trent Jones designed Damai Indah PIK golf course in Jakarta Indonesia. Among the 140 competitors from numerous countries, Singapore was represented by 13 representatives across various divisions to this year’s Himbara competition.
In Overall Boys Team Event, Singapore was triumphant with Development Squad members Andre Chong and Sean Lee teaming up to take the team title by an impressive 12 strokes over their nearest competitors from Thailand.
From the Boys A category, Zubair Bin Mohd Firdaus from Australia took the Overall Boys Division title with an aggregate +2 score of 290 with first runners up Andre Chong taking the Boys A title with an aggregate +9 score of 297. Andre secured the Boys A title by converting a critical up and down on the final 18th green after leaving his approach short of the green and sinking a 15 foot putt to edge out Samuel Slater from Australia.
There was high drama in the Boys B division. Sean Lee took the first day’s lead with an even par round. On the second day, Sean was hit by a golf ball on his ear and shoulder which swelled up and caused him to have to change his swing but he continued to soldier on to complete the second round of play with a credible 3 over. Sean closed on the final day with an identical aggregate +13 scores with the two competitors from Thailand and could even have taken the title if he had converted a 20 foot putt on the 18th green.
In the Girls B division, 13 year old Angel Lim took the 1st runners up position with a credible aggregate +16 score for the 3 days competition. In Boys D division, Brayden Lee and Jayden Loh took the 3rd and 4th runners up position with an aggregate 3day scores of + 22 and + 26 respectively. In the Girls D division, Laelle Chng secured the 4th runners up position with an aggregate 3 day score of +53.
The performances by the Singapore team this year was unprecedented and may in part be due to the training programs conducted for the SGA squads as well as the tight camaraderie and team spiritedness of all the Singaporeans who played there.
Congratulations and well done to our Singapore team!! – Kuk Hun Yi, article contributor.
