Warwickshire Golf
Warwickshire Girls Championships 11 August 2023
The Warwickshire Girls Championships were played for the first time in conjunction with the Boys under 18 Championships on 11 August 2023.
This inaugural event was played at Nuneaton Golf Club on a warm but windy day. The course was beautifully prepared with some tricky pin positions and fast greens. The event was eagerly anticipated by 14 girls with 8 girls playing in the 36 hole event and 6 in the 18 holes event. The girls played in groups of girls but all were sent off in reverse handicap order which meant all girls were playing amongst boys of similar handicaps. For all the players this meant a real sense of competitive golf with the girls keenly competing to outdo the boys! There was a great atmosphere all day and having up to 40 juniors there at the same time made for an exciting occasion.
Our thanks go to Chris Brown, County Secretary for giving us this opportunity, to Mark Reynolds, County President for starting the girls and his constant presence, to Marc Valentine and members at Nuneaton GC for their help with planning the event and the caterers for the endless supply of sandwiches and chips!
My thanks in particular go to Elizabeth Earnshaw for being there with me all day entering scores and ensuring correct results, to Skye Furnace, County Captain, for her support of the girls and the event and to Lesley Duff and Sharon Butler for walking with the higher handicap girls to ensure their safety and speed of play.
But to the results! The top group of Arianna Virik, Maisie Halstead and Serafima Talyor was always going to be highly competitive with Arianna having lost out to Maisie last year and Serafima determined to outdo them both and after the morning round there were only 4 shots separating them all.
The eventual winner of the 36 hole event, receiving the Edgbaston Trophy and becoming the Warwickshire Girls Champions for 2023 was Arianna Virik (Kenilworth GC) with gross scores of 80 and 79. Maisie Halstead (Kenilworth GC) won the Stratford runner up trophy with gross scores of 83 and 82 with Arianna also collecting the Estelle Goodman Trophy for the best 36 hole net score.
The remainder of the trophies are competed for over the first 18 holes played by all girls.
Pam Large Trophy awarded for the best gross score for those not having played in the 36 hole event was won by Erin Hamilton(Coventry Hearsall GC) with an excellent score of 101 (net under par, great score Erin!)
The Harborne Cup with the best net score for those not having played in the 36 hole event was Isabelle Toon (Stonebridge GC) with an outstanding score of 66! (5 under par, brilliant score Issy!)
We were proud to present a new trophy this year, the Elizabeth Earnshaw Trophy which was awarded to the best combined girl’s and boy’s gross score from the same club for the first 18 holes played. The winning club was Coventry Golf Club with Heather Gilks and Josh Gardner the winning pair.
presenting her trophy to
Heather Gilks
The Sylvia Evans Trophy for the best overall gross score for those under 16 years of age went to Arianna as did the Jane Dennick Trophy for the best overall gross score for those under 14 years of age. Arianna equalled her best overall haul of trophies at this event winning 4!
Isabelle was also the best overall net winner in the under 16 and under 14 category and although there were no trophies for net winners, this was a wonderful championship for Issy!
Arianna will represent Warwickshire at the 2023 England Golf County Champion of Champions event at Woodhall Spa on 9 September and also as County Champion and under 14 Champion at the 2023 Midland Champion of Champions at Trentham Park GC on 24 September together with Maisie as under 16 Champion and Tia Hayes as our under 18 Champion.
Arianna and Isabelle as best gross and net scores over the first 18 holes have had their scores forwarded to the Justin Rose/Telegraph Junior Golf Championships with the top 12 girls, gross and net scores qualifying for the finals in Portugal later in the year.
Pat Hale
Please click here for full results
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