BJGT Wales Open, Southerndown Major: report, results and photos

A Top 5 course in Wales was certainly a suitable venue for our inaugural BJGT Wales Open – kindly sponsored by Ron Skinner & Sons!

A simply stunning venue, with reputedly one of the hardest opening holes in British golf, along with the resident sheep, certainly made for a very interesting challenge for the players.

Our thanks go to John for all his help and assistance in making the event possible and the members for making us feel so welcome, we think they were suitably impressed with the talent on show!

Junior Open Category

Jay Eggleton turned on the style in the Boys Junior Open Division, as he produced a superb round of 74, which included four birdies in five holes around the turn. This not only gave him a clear victory for the Welsh Open title in the Gross results, but his Net 69 also gave him maximum Major Order of Merit Points in the Net standings. Jay also won the draw for a custom-fit Vokey Wedge courtesy of Titleist UK & Ireland. Oliver Brightman followed Jay home in second on both tables, claiming valuable OOM points, after his round of 80 (net 74) gave him the two runners-up trophies on the day, while Joel Warne claimed third place in both results tables, as he looks to secure his second place on the Gross OOM and the top spot on the Net OOM table heading into he final stages of the season.

The Girls Junior Open section saw a similar result, as Ffion Richardson rose to the top of the results table on both Gross and Net Divisions, her 86 being two shots good enough to push Ellie Lichtenhein into second in the Gross standings, who maintained her impressive assault on the Order Merit table, while Morgan Mellin fired a Net 77 to claim second place and the runner-up trophy in the Girls Net Division.

11-12 Category

The 11-12 Division was even closer, as a single shot separated the top 2 players: Maxi Moore and Kodi Dean went head-to-head and produced some wonderful golf. Maxi, who had an eagle and three birdies, just held off the challenge of Kodi, who finished with three birdies in the last four holes, to claim the inaugural Welsh Open title and runner-up trophy with rounds of 76 and 77, respectively. Aryan Alwala showed more good form to claim third place with his round of 80, getting the better of Alexander Mills’ matching 80 over the back 9.

7-8 Category

The 7-8 Division saw Marcus Karim take his first Major title of the year, as he took the honours in the first BJGT Wales Open with his round of 45 for the 10-hole event, and also move to the top of the incredibly tight Order of Merit table. Darcy Eaton had his best finish of the season, as he came home in second just three shots behind, narrowly ahead of Tee Rasteiro and Oliver Smith, who required a countback to separate their 49s, with Teo getting the decision over the final 9 holes.

6 & Under Category

Brody MacIver added the Welsh Open title to the British JGT Open title that he claimed earlier in the season, and become a 2-time Major winner. His 45 gave him a 6-shot winning margin over Zachary Blayney who took the runner-up trophy home, while Jack Proctor secured third place two shots further back, as he and Zachary battle it out for 2nd and 3rd on the Order of Merit table behind Brody.