Saturday 30 January 2010

Marc 4th in National Ranking Game

The SGA held the 1st National Ranking Game of 2010 this week. The event was played over 3 rounds between Laguna National and Seletar Country Club's.

Marc Ong was recently selected as the youngest member of the 2010 National Men's Squad and playing in his first amateur competition of the year, played extremely consistent golf recording rounds of 74,75,73 to finish 4th behind fellow National Squad member and former Academy student Koh Dengshan.

Wednesday 20 January 2010

Barr Wins as Academy Students Dominate SPGA Tournament


Australia's Scott Barr has won the SPGA's January Circuit played over two rounds at Laguna National Country Club's Masters Course. Barr opened up with a terrific 5-under par round of 67 thanks to some solid ball-striking and precision putting. He backed it up with a par round of 72 to cruise to a comfortable 4 shot victory. Scott has been working hard on his game over the past two weeks in preparation for the 2010Asian Tour season.

The tournament was dominated by our Academy students as Singapore's Quincy Quek and Marc Kawasoe finished on 1-under par and in a tie for 2nd place. Quek, who earned his Asian Tour card at last weeks Qualifying School in Thailand, continued his good form and challenged Barr's lead in the 2nd round when he got it to 5-under for the day, only to drop 3 shots toward the end of his round. Quek and Kawasoe, who began refining his technique with Head Instructor Chris Marriott in 2009 shared 2nd place with former Asian Tour winner Zaw Moe of Myanmar.

In the Senior's category, Academy Instructor David Ng fired rounds of 75,73 for a one-shot victory over former student Peter Teravainen.

Congratulations to Scott Barr and David Ng!!

Monday 18 January 2010

Peter Senior Qualifies for The Open Championship


Peter Senior's two round total of 5-under par has helped him secure one of three spots available at the International Final Qualifying at Kingston Heath in Melbourne. Senior will join fellow Australians Kurt Barnes and Ewan Porter at this years Open Championship to be held at The Home of Golf, St Andrews from July 15-18.

Peter will also be playing in the Senior Open Championship at Carnoustie the following week.

Congratulations to Pete from the Singapore Academy on a terrific effort!!

Friday 15 January 2010

Quek Earns 2010 Asian Tour Card


Singapore's former no.1 ranked amateur Quincy Quek has recorded a T11th place finish at Final Stage of Asian Tour Qualifying School in Hua Hin, Thailand and as a result has earned himself one of 40 Tour Cards. Quincy will now join fellow Singaporeans Mardan Mamat and Lam Chih Bing with full playing rights on the Asian Tour for the 2010 season.

In his rookie year as a Professional Golfer, Quincy played steady through the first 2 rounds of Qualifying School shooting 71, 68 to make the Final Stage halfway cut before a brilliant 3rd round of 6-under 66 charged him into contention for medalist honours. Quincy's 3rd round included an impressive 8 birdies. Going into the final round he was just 3 shots off the lead held by Katsumune Imai of Japan. In very difficult windy conditions and under the pressure of playing in the championship group, Quek posted a round of 74 to finish on a total of 8-under and just 4 shots behind former Asian Tour winner Artemio Murakami who took out the medalist honours.

This was a terrific result for Quincy as several notables failed to qualify amongst the top 40, including former British Open runner-up Jean Van De Velde who ended in a tie for 67th.

Congratulations to Quincy from all here at the Singapore Academy!!

Marc 3rd in Philippine Junior Championship

Marc Ong has finished 3rd in the 13-14yr division of the 2010 Philippine Junior Golf Championship held at the Ayala Greenfield Golf and Leisure Club in Calamba, Laguna.

Marc shot earlier rounds of 76, 79 before a terrific final of 2-under par 70. This fired him up the leaderboard into 3rd place behind Filipino Keanu Jahns and Malcolm Kunjin of Sarawak, Malaysia.

Friday 8 January 2010

Nicholas 3rd in Queensland Boys Amateur


Nicholas Smits was unable to capitalise on his 2nd round lead in the 2010 Queensland Boys Amateur Championship after finishing in 3rd place behind the defending champion Cameron Smith.

Nicholas took the championship lead after firing rounds of 69 and 68 but Cameron Smith proved too strong in the end carding rounds of 70, 68, 65, 68 - 271 to finish an impressive 17-under par for the championship. Redcliffe's Taylor MacDonald was the nearest challenger finishing runner-up after returning scores of 70, 68, 68, 71 - 277 (-11). Nicholas was a further 5 shots back on 282 (-6).

Smith will now join an elite few that have managed to successfully defended their title at this championship, some of which include Shane Tait (87,88), Adam Scott (97,98), Andrew Buckle (99,00), and Andrew Dodt (03,04).

This was a good start to the year for Nicholas, a sign of big things to come for the junior golfer in 2010!

Monday 4 January 2010

Academy Juniors Promoted by SGA in 2010


Three Singapore Academy junior golfers have been honoured with deserving promotions after the SGA announced its National Mens and Youth Squads for 2010.

After finishing 2009 in 2nd position on the National Youth Order of Merit, 14yr old Marc Ong (pictured here)has been promoted to the 2010 SGA National Squad, becoming the youngest ever golfer to be selected in the National Men's Squad. It is a terrific achievement for such a young player. Marc has been training with the Singapore Academy Head Instructor, Chris Marriott since he was 11yrs of age and has collected a number of prestigous trophies along the way, including the 2007 National Inter-Primary School Championship, the 2008 HSBC Junior Champion of Champions, the 2009 National Interschool Championship and the 2009 HSBC Youth Golf Challenge. He was runner-up in this years Thailand Junior World Team Championship and also had several great results against the bigger boys in both local and international amateur events. Amateur highlights for Marc in 2009 included reaching the quarter finals of the Singapore National Amateur Championship and a commendable 3rd place at the Warren Amateur Open. Both these performances showing Marc's huge potential.

The SGA also announced that academy juniors Edgar Oh and Nicholas Lim have been promoted into the 2010 SGA National Youth Squad. Both juniors had a terrific year in 2009. Edgar claimed many junior titles during the year but the standout achievements were his victories at the Singapore National Junior Championship and the SICC Junior Invitational. Nicholas has also earnt his selection in the National Youth Squad after some terrific performances in 2009. Winning the NSRCC Junior Open and the HSBC Youth Golf Challenge at SICC were the highlights of his year.

Congratulations to Marc, Edgar and Nicholas!