U-15 Skills Challenge 2018

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Six clubs from four different provinces will be represented at the National Final of this year’s U-15 Skills Challenge.

Dungarvan won both the boys and girls section of the Munster regional final, while the Connacht boys section was won by the Galway Bay team and impressively for the fourth year in a row, Enniscrone Golf Club won the girls section.

Headfort and Tullamore Golf Club were triumphant at the Leinster regional qualifier on Sunday, while it was double success for Tandragee Golf Club who won both sections in Ulster to complete the line-up for the National Final, which takes place at the GUI National Golf Academy on Saturday, 15th September.

The U-15 Skills Challenge is designed for young golfers, under the age of 15, to focus on the key skills of the game and to encourage them to be the best that they can be.

The competition helps juniors develop their Putting, Chipping, Iron Play and Driving in a team environment and is open to golf clubs throughout Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

There are four players on each team, each team specialising in one of the four particular skills. For example, Player 1 completes the Putting Challenge, Player 2 completes the Chipping Challenge, Player 3 completes the Iron Challenge and Player 4 completes the Driving Challenge. The four individual skill scores are combined to make up a final team score.

Club Support Officer Justin O’Byrne commented on the success of the event over the weekend:

“We had to reschedule this event due to the weather conditions earlier in the year and while the new date affected the number of teams that could enter, we are thrilled with how the qualifiers went and the feedback has been extremely positive from junior convenors, parents and most importantly the juniors themselves. We are looking forward to a great day at the National Finals and would encourage clubs across the country to run these types of challenges in their own clubs as alternatives to the regular forms of competition.”