Eagle Ridge GC was the latest venue for the next in our series of Wee Highlander Tour competitions where our youngest developing golf talents play 6 holes of fun but challenging stroke play golf over a shortened length course at great local venues.
Yesterday we had a pair of talented young players challenging themselves against the Eagle Ridge course and greens to try to achieve their best score.
Kenzi Kacanich aged 7 made her debut recently and left with a winners medal when it was impossible to seperate her and Koen Huther’s tied scores even after several play off holes! Kenzi is becoming an accomplished competitor in these matches and yesterday was clearly a bit more relaxed as she prepared to play alongside another of our previous Wee Highlanders – Nathan Mehrlich aged just 6.
After a quick briefing of the rules, which mainly consist of ensuring you have a LOT of fun or risk disqualification from the competition, the match was underway.
Fiona from the Wee Highlander Tour always accompanies our matches from start to finish and on every occasion so far she has reported on just how much fun SHE gets from just being a part of the process and watching these youngest of players play the game we hope will be with them for life!
It really is great fun to just watch young golfers just play and develop at this early stage without pressure or desperate need to shoot a low score. We really do hope these experiences help them understand that first and foremost the game must be FUN and enjoyable every time they play!
Ladies first is the rule when playing from the same tee boxes and Kenzi got us underway with a fine drive, Nathan followed suit. That was to be the scene for most of the match. Kenzi has a one year advantage on Nathan and its interesting to see how that plays out…a bit more height and balance gives an advantage and has her being just a little bit longer from the tee at times. Around the greens they both played well with some good moments.
Mom caddied for Nathan and Dad was on Kenzi’s bag….well done to both of you! We know the job of caddie is certainly NEVER easy…when its your own kid we know its SO tough to remain detached but supportive FOR them…be prepared is what we say as you just might find yourself doing that for the next 10 years or so or at least until they get so good they fire you …as a caddie that is, not as a parent!
The other important thing we want to say about these Wee Highlander events is in relation to support….we are incredibly blessed to be involved in this with such supportive people. As adults we ALL want to see our own kids do great things in life and if possible in the sport(s) they choose to play however we are enormously grateful to watch these matches with you all when you share the same philosophy as we do and you support ALL the participants.
Playing golf teaches these kids great things including respect, honesty and fair play. When they hear YOU as their spectator/parent/grandparent applaud and cheer every shot regardless of which player hit it it teaches them to be better golfers and grow into better young people.
Regarding the match itself…it would be remiss of us not to mention that Kenzi celebrated her 1st birdie in competition golf yesterday …a feat most of us certainly can’t say happened when they were 7 years of age! Great job Kenzi!
When the scores were counted on this one Kenzi took the medal with a very impressive 30. That’s excellent golf, (its also pretty close to our record Wee Highlander score set by Carson Luck)and a significant improvement on last time. Nathan also improved well on his last game in scoring and on his general play and course management….we think he should DEFINITELY get the Lego set after that mom! Well done to you both!
Thanks everyone who supported this event and we hope you enjoyed it. We are back next week at the same venue, Eagle Ridge GC in Summerfield but on a different golf course next time for our next Wee Highlander. We hope you might be able to join us.
Registration is open now and you can find details by clicking HERE