Having been selected from the KPMG sponsored Irish Kids Golf Tour to compete at yesterday’s Galgorm Pro-Am, stars of the future Kayleigh Mulholland and Charlie Smyth showed the field how it’s done to pick-up the team prize alongside their professional, Stuart Grehan.
Chaperoned by 2018 Captain of The Slieve Russell Ciaran, the young hotshots, who won the Ulster Under 10s Trophy as part of the innovative Tour, blew the field away to contribute to a whopping team score of 40-under-par in the Tour Scramble Format.
The format, in which all players tee off before selecting the best drive and playing out from there, seemed to play into the hands of Kayleigh off a handicap of 21 and Charlie off a stellar 13 as the pair hit fairway after fairway to carry Grehan and Ciaran on their capable backs to the clubhouse.
For their victory, the team collected a Taylormade TP putter each and it didn’t take long for Kayleigh and Charlie to put their new wand to good use, heading straight for the Himilayas’ Par-3 course, as if 18 holes of golf wasn’t enough for one day!
With the tournament proper getting underway today, the pair would have been delighted to find their apprentice, Tullamore’s Grehan on the upper half of the leaderboard after a sound opening at the NI Open presented by Modest! Golf.
Grehan returned a two-under-par 69 but better still, he’s found himself a new fan in playing partner Kayleigh from Tobermore Golf Centre, who had special words of praise for her winning teammate after yesterday’s round.
“Stuart is my new favourite player,” she admitted to Grehan’s delight. “He’s really good! It was a really fun day. Everybody played so good and I’m just really happy that we won.”
As for Charlie, who plays out of Slieve Russell, he didn’t quite go as far as to say that Grehan was a new hero but he particularly enjoyed watching the Tullamore man in action up close.
“It was great playing with Stuart,” said Charlie. “He hits the ball really far and I hope one day I can hit it as far as him too. But everybody played great, even Ciaran! It was so fun.”
Indeed it was a full day of activities for the lucky winners and it was great for us here at IGM to sponsor the prize and see how much it meant to these budding stars. They enjoyed breakfast, lunch and dinner at the stunning Galgorm Resort and hopefully when they make it on Tour themselves one day they’ll be able to shout us back!
The Irish Kids Golf Tour provides an event setting for junior golfers to compete in a safe and enjoyable environment on some of Ireland’s best golf courses. With the provincial trophies now finished, attention turns to the Grand Final set for The K Club on August 22nd. Best of luck to everyone competing.
For more information on the Kids Golf Tour, please visit http://irishkidsgolftour.com/
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