Junior International (Boys and Girls Under 18)

South of Scotland Juniors

Versus

Norwegian Juniors

12 April 2006

 

Having grown in stature, playability and popularity since opening in 2000, Brighouse Bay Golf Club, whose testing Par 73 (SSS 72) golf course sits prominently on top of the cliffs, 6 miles south-west of the Artists' Town of Kirkcudbright, is scheduled to stage a joint Boys and Girls International Challenge on 12 April 2006.

A team of seven boys and seven girls from Baerum Golf Club in Norway, will compete against a team of seven boys and seven girls from the Scottish Golf Union - South Region, in a challenge match which it is hoped will be the first of a number of international challenges of this nature to take place within the South of Scotland Region.

This event was conceived when Svein Larsen, proprietor of the Leamington Hotel in New Galloway contacted Alan Irving, Golf Co-ordinator at Brighouse Bay Golf Club, to enquire about booking two days golf in April 2006 for a visiting group of young Norwegian golfers.  These junior golfers are to spend a week in the South-West of Scotland, playing a number of the region's leading courses.

Alan, whose son Ben is a member of the South of Scotland Golfers' Association Elite Junior Golf Squad, which is both sponsored by Gillespie Leisure Limited, owners of Brighouse Bay Golf Club, and coached at the Brighouse Bay Golf Academy, identified an opportunity to create an international fixture which could conceivably become an annual event.

When the proposal to stage this event was put to Tom Gillespie, the principal of Gillespie Leisure Limited, and his wife Evelyn, who is instrumental in many aspects of the golf club's management, they were delighted to host the event at Brighouse Bay Golf Club as an extension of their already substantial sponsorship of junior golf in the region  -  and with the co-operation of the South Junior Team Captain, Stephen Eccles, whose son Jonathon, coincidentally is a golf professional based in Norway, and Margaret Shamash, who administers girls junior golf in the region, the event became a reality, and is now featured on the official South of Scotland Golfers' Association 2006 Fixture List.

The scheduling of the event entailed a switch of dates between Southerness Golf Club and Brighouse Bay Golf Club, and thanks to the co-operation of Southerness Golf Club, a date swop was arranged, allowing the Norwegian Squad to play and familiarise themselves with the Brighouse Bay course on Saturday 8 April 2006 and to play the International Match on Wednesday 12 April 2006.