TWELVE months ago Bathurst golfer Dylan Thompson was about to take the next step in his golfing career by heading overseas to Montana’s Rocky Mountain College.
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But now he is trading his scholarship at the American college for a professional traineeship at the Bathurst Golf Club.
Thompson has decided not to head back to the United States and instead remain at his home club and work with professional Matt Barrett.
“It wasn’t planned, not really, no. It just sort of happened,” Thompson said of his change in plans.
“It’s exciting, I’m back here for three years now then I’ll go travelling again. I am also doing a business degree through the PGA program, so it hasn’t worked out too bad.”
Thompson joins fellow Bathurst golfer Tom Perfect in doing a professional traineeship under Barrett’s guidance.
“I’ve been working on my game a fair bit. I am on one [handicap] at the moment, it could be a bit better, but anyway, that’s what it is,” Thompson said.
“It’s a bit quite at the moment because I don’t really have anything on until October.”
While Thompson is not playing tournament golf at the moment, last weekend a contingent of the Bathurst Golf Club’s juniors did.
They headed to Cowra to take on Lachlan Valley in the Central West regional final of the annual Encourage Shield.
A competition run by the NSW Golf Association, the Encourage Shield is designed to offer talented juniors the opportunity to test their skills and learn matchplay competition in an environment that is fun and supportive.
The competition is handicap matchplay over 18 holes with contests comprising of six individual matches.
Each individual match counts for one point.
Jake Davis won his tie for Bathurst while Casey Thompson, Ben McCrossin and Ben Davis halved theirs.
Cameron Jackson and Bathurst’s captain Ben Mackey were not able to beat their talented rivals, who now advance to the next level in Sydney for the second consecutive year.
“It was fairly close, it was 3½ to 2½ ” Dylan Thompson said.
“Lachlan Valley is Forbes and Parkes combined, which makes it a pretty strong team, it makes it a lot tougher for Bathurst.
“Bathurst has been competing in this for a couple of years now, but they haven’t been able to make it past the Central West stage.”
Thompson said despite the recent wet weather, the Bathurst contingent found the Cowra course in good condition.
“They said it was a little bit wet, but other than that it wasn’t too bad,” he said.
“The greens were pretty quick, but it was okay for them.”
