A BATCH of the state’s best golfing juniors will converge on the Bathurst Golf Club this weekend for the annual Peter O’Malley Masters, bringing close to 200 up-and-coming players to the town.
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The event has become one of the biggest on the NSW calendar over the last couple of years and forms an integral part of the Jack Newton Junior Golf Foundation tournament schedule.
It isn’t just quantity it brings with it, either.
In the last three years the boys event has been won by Zac Stolz, son of PGA Tour title winner Andre, who is now based in the USA playing in the universities program.
Last year it was won by Sydney-based right-hander Austin Bautista, who only last month hit a hole-in-one at the Tasmanian Open.
In between, Bathurst player Scott Matheson showed his quality to hang on in a tense play-off against Stolz and claim victory.
The event has been held annually for more than 10 years and once more the 2015 edition should feature plenty of fierce competition.
Matheson will once more be one of the favourites for the boys title along with Orange’s James Conran in terms of local contenders, while the likes of Josh Armstrong and Jordan Garner from Sydney clubs The Lakes and Pennant Hills will also have their say.
“Josh won the Wagga Wagga Junior Masters last month and after a recent golf development trip to the USA he’ll be looking for back-to-back wins,” JNJGF communications manager Sheridan Graham-Tupaea said.
“Josh Gadd from Penrith, Justin Kim from the NSW Golf Club and Luke Ferrier from Pennant Hills will also be looking to take it out.
“In the girls competition, some of the players to watch are Laura Cummings from Cowra, Celina Yuan from The Australian and Hannah Park who took out the girls competition at Wagga Wagga.
“There’s a big group of younger girls that are only 12 and 13 who are playing two that they need to watch out for.”
According to Graham-Tupaea, this weekend’s competition is the biggest of the eight Junior Masters events of the year.
Major sponsors like Titleist and Subaru have given it plenty of support including hundreds of dollars’ worth of equipment for prizes.
Play kicks off tomorrow morning at 7.14am with the second wave of players to get started at 11.46am, with the tournament to conclude on Sunday.
