MATURITY BEYOND THEIR YEARS

On Sunday Amy, Kirsty and Alex played in the final of the Scottish Academy Winter Series at the Jubilee course St Andrews. Although I am away on holiday I was still keen to hear how they all got on and sent each of them a message, the responses I got really made me feel great and appreciated. The success of our junior section is built round kids being able to learn to play golf and have fun. To respect each other and be part of a team and to progress individually as far as they want to in the sport. Amy, as always, was first to respond, she was pleased with her front nine but disappointed in her back nine but told me she'd had bunker problems and practice was required and we've have already agreed to work on that. I have since looked at her card which she omitted to tell me about the 4 birdies and that 3 of them were on the par 5's ! Having played in her buffer she is keen to improve, has identified a weakness and wants to solve it. Next reply was from Kirsty " shot 2 over 76 , really happy " and so she should be. Again looking at the scores she finished 4th in the Girls and got a 0.3 cut in her handicap. This I know will give her confidence a huge boost going into the season. Finally a philosophical Alex responded after playing to his buffer "Game is in really great shape, holing putts, striking it really well, some silly course management, but other than a few school boy errors, I played pretty solid" Then he followed it up by telling me he had been selected again to represent Scotland under 16's in Belfast against Ireland, Wales and Netherlands. Congratulations Alex well deserved.

The maturity these youngsters are showing is incredible. They have listened, learned, practiced and are keen to improve and deserve every success they achieve.