News of former GSGB Junior Winners

GSGB Former Junior Masters Champions

GSGB Members may be interested in the current achievements of some former champions of the Junior Masters events sponsored by the society. This survey concentrates principally on players with several top two finishes in these competitions.

Jonathan Bell (Royal Blackheath) Jonathan Bell was the most prolific winner of GSGB Junior Masters events. He first came on the scene at Bath in the Wessex Junior Masters in 2001, when, at the age of 9, he was runner up in the scratch competition. He won the Laddie Lucas Spoon at Prince’s, the Little Aston and the Gogs Junior Masters and was again runner up in the Wessex Junior Masters in 2003. In 2004 and 2005 he successfully defended his Laddie Lucas Spoon title. Winner of two key championships this year (2008), Jonathan was one of four talented youngsters in the winning English team in the Honda International Junior Championship at Wild Duck Country Club in Nikkawa Kamisu City, Japan, in October 2008. In his debut in the Boys Home Internationals in 2008, Bell lost only one of his six matches. He is in the 2009 English Under-18 Squad along with Adam Myers winner of the Gogs Junior Masters in 2004 and Scott Campbell winner of the Little Aston Junior Masters also in 2004.	Hannah Coles (Maxstoke Park) Hannah is the only girl to have had an outright scratch win in a Junior Masters event (Little Aston 2002). Hannah is now a student at Radford University, Virginia. She has claimed her first outright victory on the US women’s college circuit, coming from two shots behind to win the individual title at the 2008 Lady Herd Fall Classic in Huntington, West Virginia. She had five birdies in her second round, which included holing out from 100-yards on the par four 11th at Sleepy Hollow golf course. She was four-over for the two rounds with scores of 75, 73 and she won by a shot. Earlier in the 2008 autumn season, Hannah tied for first place in the Charleston Southern Invitational – only to lose in an all-English play-off with Olivia Jordan-Higgins of Royal Jersey.
Sam Connor (Alsager) Sam Connor was runner up at Moortown in 2001 at the age of 9 and won at Little Aston in 2005. The 16-year-old left school at the end of the summer term 2008 and recently became Alsagar club champion for the second time. He is also club champion at Vale Royal Abbey, near Nantwich, and a leading member at Sandiway that he now regards as his home club. Connor, who has been handling a golf club since he could stand, joined Alsagar at the age of five and was, reportedly, described as a bit of a "boy wonder" by Ernie Els when the two met at Wentworth a couple of years later. Connor now plays off plus one and, apparently, is being eyed by England.	Mikhail Ishaq (Bondhay) Mikhail Ishaq had back-to-back wins in the Moortown Junior Masters in 2004 and 2005, was runner up at the Gogs in 2004 and won that event in 2005. In July 2008 he fired a stunning five under par opening round of 65 in the First Point USA Scottish Boys Under-16s stroke-play championship at Glen GC in North Berwick. Mikhail fired seven birdies in a breath-taking first round. He followed this by a second round 70 to take the title by 3 shots. (Play was abandoned after two rounds due to flooding).
Jack Hiluta (Chelmsford) Jack Hiluta from Chelmsford won the Gogs event in 2002. He went on in 2007 to Captain the Great Britain and Ireland team in the Jacques Leglise Trophy. Jack is now on a sports scholarship at South Alabama University where he has had 3 top ten finishes which included a five-under-par 67 on the second day of the Sun Belt Championships.	Oliver Fisher Oliver Fisher won the Laddie Lucas Spoon in 2001. He has gone on to become the youngest player ever to contest a Walker Cup match. He missed out on an historic European Tour win when he lost in a play-off to Frenchman Thomas Levet at the Andalucia Open in March 2008. The two were tied on 16 under before the play-off. Levet said of Fisher "If he improves on Tour in two or three years he'll be like Tiger Woods”.
Tommy Fleetwood (Formby) Whilst Tommy Fleetwood only featured in one top two Junior Masters finishes (Moortown in 2002), he is now proving a very exciting prospect. He is one of four teenagers in the England Elite Squad and is being eyed as a potential player in the 2009 Walker Cup. He was named 2008 Young Sports Personality of the year by the Merseyside Sports Partnership Future Sporting Champions Awards. In July 2008 he played as a member of the English team in the European Team Championships at Bled in Slovenia. In September 2008 he won the English County Champions tournament at Woodhall Spa.	Three to watch for the future - Will Cooper (Woburn) and Mark Collins (Chart Hills) Aged 13 in 2008, both Will Cooper and Mark Collins recorded 3 top two finishes in GSGB Junior Masters events. Mark at the age of 12 won the Gogs event in 2007 with a stunning 3 under par 69 and Will was runner up. In 2008 the roles at the Gogs were reversed with Will pipping Mark by one shot (one and two over respectively). Will was runner up at Bath in 2008 and Mark was runner up at the Gogs in 2006. Delon Hau (Vale of Glamorgan) recorded back to back wins in the Wessex Junior Masters in 2007 and 2008.

Last updated 11/12/2008