Bramshaw Manor Masters & ‘Mini-Masters’ Junior Opens

Bramshaw Golf Club’s Junior Opens took place on Monday 26th October with over 100 junior golfers taking part from over 30 different golf clubs. With the additional challenge of Covid-19 compliance, planning for this event started several months ago and thankfully, after two days of heavy rain, the sun shone hbrightly for the young golfers. This event is always a highlight in Bramshaw’s golfing calendar and once again our members (30+) turned out in force to support it. The ‘meet & greet’ personnel, starters, scorers, ball-spotters and marshals make such a difference and help the event run smoothly, hopefully enabling all of our visiting golfers and their parents to enjoy a very special day.

After the weekend’s rainfall, the course was certainly playing its full length and a moderate breeze added another challenge for the golfers to overcome. Teeing off from 7.30am to 2pm it really was a full day’s play with the morning taken up by 83 Manor Masters players followed by the 23 Mini- Masters players competing in Under 8, Under 10 and Under 12 age categories. This event is now in its 3rd year and the quality of golf from these younger players is amazing.

With the players teeing off in ascending handicap order, the first 3-ball of the day included the 2 previous winners of the scratch competition, Joe Buenfeld (2018) and Charlie Forster (2019). With Charlie defending his title, he faced tough opposition with ca. 25 golfers with handicaps of 6 or better. One of Charlie’s fellow North Hants players, Gemma Burgess was to prove too strong though and took the title from Charlie with a great round of 1 over par (75), to take the title by 3 shots from her nearest challenger. Joe Buenfeld (Bramshaw) was runner-up with a 4-over par round, narrowly edging out 3 players who were all 1 shot further back.

The Handicap Competition was a very closely fought contest with 2 golfers having brilliant rounds and both playing 5 shots under their handicap. The tussle was between Molly-May Baker (Northampton County) and Ben Mayes (Bramshaw) with the title being decided by the narrowest of margins. Both scored net 66 and Molly-May took the title on countback.

Another first for the Manor Masters – both of the top prizes going to girls! The story gets even better with Molly-May only taking up golf this year due to lockdown halting her dancing activities. Clearly, two very talented young ladies!

The Mini-Masters competition has been a valuable addition to the day and it genuinely is great to see even younger junior golfers able to meet fellow golfers and participate in a friendly, competitive environment. With the youngest player just 6 years old, Theo Oderinde (Lavender Park) managed to win the Under 8 category prize. The Under 10s category winner was Jack Isaacs (Ferndown) and the Under 12 category honours went to Niamh Magee (Royal Winchester). The overall winner from the visiting junior golfers was Anthony Stephens (Paultons) with a gross 47. The Bramshaw juniors competed in their own Mini-Masters with Zac Bulloch (46) edging out Oliver Lewis (47) to take the title.

With Covid-19 in mind only the 4 trophy winners were presented with their trophies and this was undertaken in the open air too! Pictured below are the days trophy winners with Junior Captain, Ryan Archer (Left) and Club Captain (Right)

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the parents who supported their children in both the Manor Masters and Mini-Masters – without them we wouldn’t have the numbers and quality of young golfers playing this great game.