Region's finest tee it up at Staffordshire golf club as part of series that Rory McIlroy once played in
A Staffordshire golf club has played host to some of the region’s finest young golfers.
A strong field of 28 up and coming stars, aged between seven and 12, competed at Stone Golf Club today (April 14) as part of the Faldo Futures tour.
It was the first time in the club’s history that it was selected to host the event, and it’s hoped the competition will help to raise the profile of the nine hole course.
Stone’s very own Albert Lees shot an impressive one-under-par round of 34 to win the boys 11 to 12 category. Other winners included Kiaan Sharma, Theo Price, Evan Nash, Kerensa Watson and Lottie Evans.
And, winners have now qualified for the regional finals, to be held at a later date.
Founded in 1996 by Sir Nick Faldo, the Faldo Futures is regarded as the biggest and ‘most successful’ global junior golf series.
Played as a nine hole competition over shortened courses, qualifiers are designed to attract as many children as possible to participate.
More than 45,000 young golfers have taken part in the Faldo Futures so far, including Masters Champion Rory McIlory.
Youngsters who teed it up at Stone - just a day after McIlroy’s success at Augusta National - were reminded of his hard work and journey to get to where he is today.
Volunteers gave their time to marshall the competition and make sure everything ran smoothly.
And, club stalwart Colin Heard was grateful for their support and delighted for the club to host the event for the first time.
He said: “Stone Golf Club is very proud to host the event. For a club like ours it is quite an honour to host something like that.
“The members deserve credit for how they came out to volunteer and help the kids.
“The condition of the course for the time of year was very good as well, and we hope they enjoyed it.
“We definitely want to host the event again, hopefully we have done a good job and the kids and parents enjoyed their day. We will certainly do it again, 100 per cent.
“We hope this will encourage more youngsters to take up golf and join us at Stone. We are looking to pursue getting the junior membership going and thriving again.”
