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Cottesmore GC’s Junior and Academy Open attracted 103 juniors across 19-plus golf clubs, ranging from five to 18 years old.

Cottesmore Hotel Golf and Country Club hosted the event after a three year pause on hosting the event due to Covid. The Cottesmore Junior Section parents and Academy Manager Calum Callan undertook some meticulous planning over a nine-month period to deliver a showpiece event promoting the strength of junior golf at Cottesmore and across Sussex.

Cottesmore Junior Section were able to secure a major sponsor, Magma Aviation, for the Junior Open, which hosted Junior Golfers with recognised handicaps of 36.4 or below, on the Cottesmore Griffin course (18-hole championship course). For budding golfers with no handicap, they were invited to play in the Academy Open, sponsored by CC Golf Academy, on the Cottesmore’s 9-hole Phoenix course (played from the junior blue tees).

Across both opens, there were 103 juniors, from 19-plus golf clubs across Sussex, Surrey and Kent. A strong mix of girls and boys, age ranging from five years to 18. With support of the Junior Organisers across Sussex and other counties, the Cottesmore Junior Section could not have imagined for such a great turnout.

Some of the prizewinners at the Cottesmore GC event

Previous winners of Cottesmore Junior Opens have been some well-known names in the world of golf; Justin Rose, Dame Laura Davies, Zane Scotland and Shergo Kurdi.

Although a carefully planned event, there was one factor that was not within their control, the weather. Despite the heavy rain the night before and early morning, the sunshine made an appearance an hour prior to the first tee time and stayed throughout the day. After some scrambling to get the course greens in playable condition, Cottesmore were treated to some wonderful golf across both Open events.

Junior Open

With support from an amazing sponsor, Magma Aviation, the Cottesmore Junior Open were able to offer £1,300 worth of prizes across 5 categories and paying down to 5th place for some categories, ensuring a strong breadth of honours for all competitors. The key highlights from the Junior Open were:

Boys Gross Winner | Ralph Roberts (Ham Manor)

Girls Gross Winner | Joy Shi (West Hove)

Nett Winner | Alfie Peacock (Cottesmore)

Boys Stableford Winner | Jack Wills (Piltdown)

Girls Stableford Winner | Sienna Simmonds (Walton Health)

Academy Open

Sponsored by CC Golf Academy, they had another strong selection of prizes for various age groups. The key highlights from the Academy Open were:

Overall Winners | Joshua Stone and Freddie Hopkins (shared the honours)

Under 7s | Harry Clark

Under 9s | Rocky Shi

Under 11s | Joshua Stone

Under 13s | Jack Leigh

Under 15s | George Sharpe

Girls U9s | Dorothy Elliot

Girls U15s | Ella Fitchett

Cottesmore's Junior Organiser, Mandeep Dhami, said of the event: “It was fantastic to see so many kids of such a wide age spectrum all coming together to enjoy their golf. We are very passionate about growing the game of Junior golf within Sussex.”

For details of the Cottesmore Junior Golf Section, please contact 07703 174261.

103 young golfers take part in Sussex club’s open