Portugal Success

The tournament was the first ever overseas event for the BJGT. ‘The Race to Portugal’ took the form of seven qualifying competitions with the top twenty-five youngsters aged between five and sixteen and split into six age groups eligible to compete in the finals at Gramacho, accompanied by their parents. The youngest group played just ten holes each day but the older children played eighteen with a Stableford on the first day, followed by strokeplay on the other three.

The standard of golf was high with a near hole-in-one at the par-3 fifteenth, Ryan Chadwick’s ball hit the flag, went into the hole – and then came out again! Seven-year-old Harry Austin also chipped in for a birdy two at hole number ten.  On the first day, eleven-year-old Harry Burt, handicap 11, had the best gross score of 78. One of the best rounds of the tournament was from sixteen-year-old Alex Marshall, with a handicap of 7, who shot a gross 74 on Day Three.