Ready For The Off

May 12 2008 by The Journal

We have now completed a comprehensive Winter Development Programme which saw us hold our first Golf Excellence weekend. This was possible with the financial help of the English Golf Union. We held all of our winter sessions at Matfen Hall with our regular county coaching team in attendance. They are John Harrison, John and Steve McKenna and specialist sessions with Louise Lewis and Steve Black. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Craig Parkinson and Matfen Hall for the use of their facilities.

The Development Squad this year included a younger group of players and now consists of players aged between 13 and 21-years-old.

The season is now upon us and the full squad have attended a number of winter get-togethers to help fine tune my plans for the season and to integrate the young development players with the county squad.

The Inter County Foursomes, the season opener, is seen as an early indication of player's form. The Sunday's quarter-finals consisted of 7 county squad players, four of whom are products of our development system.

Our first match is our annual friendly game against the Lothians, which was due to be played just after this edition of Golf North East went to press at the end of April at Northumberland Golf Club. Four players from our Development squad have been selected. They are Craig Penny, Kris Gray, Nicky Maddison and a debut for 17-year-old Will Robson (Bellingham).

Our players currently on scholarship in the USA are performing well. Mark Penny has had his first win and Chris Paisley continues to impress with a number of high finishes and is currently the second highest ranked English player in the World Amateur rankings.

May 10th is the date for our first Northern Counties league match when we take on defending champions Yorkshire at Morpeth Golf Club. Please come along and offer support at the same time as seeing some top quality golf.

Northumberland Golf would like to thank our sponsors for their continued vision and support. De Vere - Slaley Hall, Bridgestone Golf, Straightline Construction Ltd, Cellular Solutions, MGM Construction Ltd, Railnews, and USNutrition.