Update July to September

In July this year I accompanied Marc Ong and Phoebe Tan (pic below)to the 2010 Junior Open Championship in Scotland. The R&A had invited the leading junior boy and girl from 77nations to compete at this event which was held in the days leading up to The 2010Open Championship. It was an incredible experience for these two young Singaporeans, who had the chance to meet with former Open Champion Paul Lawrie at the tournament's opening ceremony. Once the championship was underway, players were faced with bitterly cold, wet and unbelievably windy conditions....unlike anything you will ever experience in South-East Asia! Both Marc and Phoebe played commendable under these brutally tough conditions, with Marc finishing 18th overall behind Japan's Kenta Konishi and Phoebe (pic below)wrapping up a nice 4th place finish in her division.




Following the final round of the Junior Open Championship, we stayed on as guests of the R&A to follow the action at The 150th Anniversary Open Championship at St Andrews. From watching Tiger play his monday morning practice round (pic below), to Rory McIlroy's incredible opening 63, to supporting Peter Senior as he went on to make the cut at age 50, to Louis Oosthuizen's unlikely yet impressive 7 stroke victory....it was a brilliant week at the Home Of Golf!








During the time we were in Scotland, two of my junior girls, Monica Matsubara (pic below)and Lim Jia Yi were over in the United States competing at the Callaway Junior World Championship. 13yr old Monica had earned herself a place in the tournament after winning the qualifying tournament in California with a sensational round of 73! Playing in the 13-14yr division of the championship, Monica put together rounds 3very consistent rounds to finish T43rd against many girls more than one year older. 14yr old Jia Yi recorded a terrific 2nd round score of 73 but could not maintain her form during the final day's play and slipped back into a tie for 62nd. It was a great experience for these two young girls and no doubt they will have benefitted from playing against many of the world's best junior golfers.


July ended with another fantastic result for the Academy with Marc Ong(pic below)winning the Warren Open Amateur Championship...his first Amateur Title and first World Amateur Ranking Event...all at the age of 14!


In August, Scott Barr stormed home in the final round of the Brunei Open on the Asian Tour with a 7-under par 65, moving him up into a tie for 16th. Scott continued his solid form the following week at the Asian Tour's Worldwide Selangor Masters (pic below)where he recorded a 7th place finish. Scott then teed it up in The Merecedez-Benz Masters Singapore, held at Laguna National Country Club. With rounds of 70,67,73 and 68, Scott finished 10-under par and T5th behind Thailand's Chawalit Plaphol.


The next event in Singapore was the National Amateur Championship held at Tanah Merah Tampines Course. After the strokeplay section of the championship, it was our two 14yr old superstars Marc Ong and Edgar Oh who once again upstaged the older more experienced amateurs with total scores of 1-over and 2-over respectively to lead the top 16 qualifiers through to the matchplay section. Edgar won his opening match but lost his 2nd match on the last hole to National player Johnson Poh. Marc defeated former Academy student Tim Pinnegar in round 1 (pic below)and then fought his way through to the semi-finals against Johnson Poh. Johnson was too strong however and went on to win the final against former Academy student George Foo. Marc then won a thrilling playoff match for 3rd place against Jerome Ng after a 37-hole marathon!


Rounding off the August tournament schedule was the biggest event on the local calendar for Amateurs...The Singapore Open Amateur Championship, held at Warren Golf & Country Club. With some incredible results this year for our juniors Marc Ong and Edgar Oh, we eagerly waited in anticipation to see how these 14yr old future stars of the game would perform against an international field of leading amateurs. After showing great form in preparation for the event, Marc was unfortunately forced to withdraw owing to illness. It was then left to Edgar to demonstrate his talent and he did not fail to disappoint with consistent rounds of 71,73,73 and 74. He held off challenges from some of Asia's most accomplished Amateur golfers to make history in being crowned the youngest ever Singapore Open Amateur Champion! Adding to this amazing achievement, as the Amateur Champion, Edgar (pic below)earns himself a spot to play in the 2010 Barclays Singapore Open!! When he tees it up at Sentosa in November alongside many of the best professional golfers in the world he will again make history as the youngest to have ever qualified for this tournament and one of the youngest to ever play in a European Tour event.


A team of our golfers representing the Singapore Sports School travelled to Jiraprawat Golf Club in August for the 2010 Thai Sports School Games. Lucius Toh and Nadhra Aqilah did us proud by winning the Individual Gold medals in their respective divisions with Tan Yong Jia bringing home a Bronze. In the team event we claimed one Gold and three Silver medals.

In September, Marc Ong and Edgar Oh represented Singapore at the Lion City Cup played in Kuala Lumpur. The Lion City Cup is the junior version of the Putra Cup which sees the very best amateur golfers from South-East Asia compete for the team and individual titles. It was yet another incredible performance from our very own Edgar Oh (pic below)who won the Individual title with a sensational final round 68, beating Jobim Antonio Carlos of the Philippines by 2 strokes. The Singapore team took 3rd place behind Philippines and Thailand.

Singapore Handa Classic

The Singapore Handa Classic, a new event on the Asian Tour schedule was played at Orchid Country Club from September 9-12. It was familiar territory for Scott Barr who has joined me for several rounds on this course over the years. Scott fired rounds of 71,67 and 68 to be 10-under going into the final round. He played nicely through 13 holes and had clawed his way up to 5th place before dropping shots on three of the last 5 holes to slip back to 12-under for the tournament, 9 shots behind eventual winner Peter Karmis of South Africa who finished his week 21-under par.


Singapore's Gregory Foo (pic left) gave the local crowd something to cheer about ending his week as the leading amateur on 4-under par, which included an impressive opening round of 67. Gregory previously trained under my guidance (pic below)for a period of 6years during which time he accumulated numerous international junior titles including the Asia-Pacific Junior Championship and a 4th placing at the prestigous Callaway Junior World Championship. Gregory has proven he can perform on the big stage and has a bright future.

Scott Barr 23-under in Japan

Scott Barr has played sensational golf to win the 2nd stage of the Japan Tour Qualifying School held at Noburukosu Arima Royal Golf Club, Kobe. With rounds of 67,65,66,67 for a 23-under total, Scott won the qualifier by a comfortable 4 stroke margin over Japan's Yanagi Takashi. Scott will now advance through to the next stage of qualifying in a bid to attain full playing rights on the Japan Tour for the 2011 season.

Academy Update March to June

Well it's been a very busy year both on and off the golf course with several of our players recording some terrific results. Here's an update on what's been happening since I last posted some news back in March....

The 9th National Inter-School Championships was held in March at Marina Bay Golf Club. 14yr old Marc Ong fired a superb opening round of 5-under par 67 and followed it up with a second round 74 to comfortably defend his National Schools title. Once again our students from the Singapore Sports School (pic below)dominated the competition, collecting 10 medals.


June was a busy month for junior golf in Singapore with a total of four tournaments being contested. Firstly it was the Singapore Junior Open Golf Championship played at Keppel GC. Marc Ong continued his good form to claim the 12-14yrs title by a massive margin of 10 strokes after rounds of 73,74,75. Marc played his way into contention for the overall title with 6 holes to play but could not quite keep up with Malaysia's Jeremiah Kim and Marc eventually ended in a tie for 3rd place overall against the 15-17yr old boys....a great effort for his age! Marc also paired up with Kok Jo Ee (pic below) to win the team event for Singapore. In the female junior category Dion Lim played consistently well over three days to finish as runner-up in the 12-14yrs division.


The second junior event in the June was the NSRCC Junior Open held at Kranji Sanctuary, and yet again it was Marc Ong walking away with the 12-14yrs title after shooting consistent rounds of 73,75,75. Marc beat fellow student Edgar Oh by a comfortable 8 stroke margin. 14yr old Marc looked set to also win the overall title against the 15-17yr old boys until another of our students, Nicholas Lim played flawless golf on the back nine to record a final round of 3-under par 69, denying Marc of the victory. It was a very impressive ball-striking and putting round for Nicholas who managed to successfully defend the title he won in 2009! Other commendable performances from our boys were recorded by Abdul Hadi (2nd, 15-17yrs) and Billie Pay (3rd, 15-17yrs). In the girls division, Academy student Rachel Lim finished 3 shots clear of fellow student Nadhra Aqilah to claim the overall girls championship....her first major junior tournament victory!

The Faldo Series (an Under-21 event) played over 2 rounds at Raffles Country Club on June 9/10 saw some incredible golf by Academy student Edgar Oh. Edgar was out of action early in the season after suffering from a fractured wrist and had struggled with his game since returning to competitive golf. However this tournament proved no struggle whatsoever for the 14yr old, opening with a 3-under par round of 69 to take a share of the lead with SGA National Squad member Jerome Ng. Playing in the championship group on day 2 with boys nearly 6yrs years his senior, Edgar stayed well composed to get it to 7-under for the championship with 9 holes to play. He dropped a few shots on the back nine but bravely hung in there to post a 1-under par 71...forcing a playoff against Jerome. A brilliant up-and-down on the second playoff hole clinched the victory for Edgar (pic below). Edgar's win has earned himself a spot in The Faldo Series Asia Grand Final to be held in China.


The 4th and final junior tournament in the June holidays was the HSBC Youth Challenge which was once again dominated by our students. Due to bad weather the second day's play was abandoned with Nicholas Lim (pic below far left)being named champion in the 15-17yrs division following his 1st day score of 1-under par 72 at Orchid Country Club. Fellow student Ashwin Bhanu took second place with a 1-over par 74. In the 12-14yrs category it was the two up and coming guns in Singapore golf...Marc Ong and Edgar Oh finishing on a similar score of 2-over par 75, with Marc (pic below far right)being named the champion on a countback. The girls 12-14yrs division was won by Singapore Sports School student Rachel Cheang (pic below right).

Scott Barr Tops China Open Qualifiers

Scott Barr will join America's Daniel Im in Suzhou next month for the US$2.5 million Volvo China Open after both players finished joint first at the 36-hole International Qualifying played at Discovery Bay Golf Club in Hong Kong.

The two other qualifying spots were taken by the Taiwanese duo of Chen Ming-chuan and amateur Tsai Tsung-yu.

Well done Scott!

Senior T14th in Toshiba Classic

Peter Senior has continued his solid form on the Champions Tour with another top 15 finish. Senior's three rounds of 71,68 and 67 gave him a 7-under par total at the Newport Beach Country Club and earned him a cheque for US$30,600.00. It's only a matter of time before Pete claims his maiden Champions Tour title.

Barr Contends in Malaysian Open

Scott Barr is just 4 shots off the lead going into the final round of the US$2million dollar Malaysian Open. Barr opened his campaign with a flawless round of 68, followed by a 71 and 70 to be 7-under par against a veru strong field of both Asian Tour and European Tour stars. The big names who will be contending for tomorrows title include Thongchai Jaidee and K.J Choi who are both only one shot behind the leaders.

Good luck Scott!!