It was great to be back at Summerglen GC on Saturday with our Wee Highlanders and our regular HJT players. Our last visit was March of this year and so many  things happily have remained the same, including the warm welcome we always receive, and the many kind comments we always receive from their resident and local players.

Unlike some venues we know of Summerglen GC really are positive and supportive of junior golf development and that’s a big part of why we enjoy coming back here.

The Summerglen golf course is in fine shape right now and the front 9’s traditional layout made it easy for us to do what we’ve wanted to do for some time now and extend our Wee Highlanders Challenge matches to 9 holes of golf from the previous 6.

Back in the early days of our Wee Highlander competitions we believed that 9 holes for our youngest of golfers would be a little too much for them…,our thought process early on for these fun matches was all about ensuring they had fun and even although our own infant-parenting days are well behind us we do remember enough to know that a “tired child”  and the concept of having fun seldom go together!

It seems like we got that one wrong…these little golfers in particular easily power through 6 holes and thrive on the extra challenge of 3 more! With this very much in mind it certainly is our intention to move forward in this way and offer all future Wee Highlander events as 9 hole stroke play competitions.

Our Wee players on Saturday are both regulars on this particular tour. They have played together many times and always provide everyone following their group with exceptional golf and no shortage of fun and drama either!

Kenzi Kacanich aged 7 and Koen Huther aged 6 are both fine young players and both are already way ahead of the development curve for junior golfers of their respective ages. It’s exciting for us, and indeed anyone with a love of our great game, to think just how good these youngsters may be in a few years if they continue developing at this rate…for now though it’s necessary for us all to put that to the back of our thoughts and just enjoy watching them, and supporting them, just having some fun on the golf course.

Koen has acquired some new junior golf clubs since he played his last Wee Highlander. Anyone who plays golf left handed will already know that choice becomes a bit more limited for “lefties” and junior left handed clubs are even more rare to find!  Despite one or two of them being a touch longer than he is used to Koen still has the ability and the swing to use them well.

Kenzi enjoys a bit of age/height advantage which usually gives her a slight edge when it comes to scores but as we often say during these reports that while scores determine who wins our Wee Highlander medal the important thing is to see them both enjoy the experience and challenge and play with a smile on their faces.

For most of the day that was the case. The drama we mentioned earlier came when young Koen inadvertently struck his own ankle with his putter…I’ve done that too, and not so long ago, it’s painful and it stops you right in your tracks. Koen got over it better and faster than I did and he was quickly back on the tee again to continue playing!

Support for these young players is never in short supply. Parents, friends and Grandparents cheer every drive, chip and putt and this really does help make it fun for the players. Thank you all for being so supportive of all of the players efforts.

After 9 holes it was time to count the scores and present this week’s medal to the lowest scorer. Their respective scorecards make interesting reading and show just how good both players are. For scoring purposes we do adopt the “time saving” rule of circle 8 which simply means if a player has taken 8 strokes you should just pick up your ball, score the hole as an 8 taken and move on….to give you an example of how much these youngsters have improved the above rule was only needed on 4 occasions. That’s only 4 of a total 18 holes where either one of these players had to “circle 8”!

Both players cards had a predominance of 4’s, 5’s and 6’s. Great scoring and signs that both players are closely matched too.

In the end it was Kenzi who took the medal with a splendid score of 52. Koen shot an impressive 57 over the 9 holes.

A close match!

Well done to Kenzi and Koen from everyone here at Highlander Junior Tour for putting on such a great display of junior golf for us all. We enjoyed it and hope that you did too?

Our next Wee Highlander is on Saturday December 5th at Red Tail GC. We already have a couple of entries in for that one where we will once again play 9 holes. Why not come along nd join in the fun? Registration is open now and you can sign up by clicking HERE

Congratulations Kenzi – Good job!
Koen and Kenzi – always golf friends whatever the score!

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *