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Fourteen Clubs skills contest

Photos: Eric Gibson III

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

GEORGETTE Rolle’s Fourteen Clubs Golf Academy, which is making a tremendous impact on the Junior Golf Programme in the Bahamas, hosted its Skills Competition in the Bahamas Golf Federation’s Driving Range at the Baillou Hills Sporting Complex on Saturday.

The event was designed to give the golfers an opportunity to work on their short game scoring. At the same time, they competed for a number of prizes that were up for grabs.

At the end of the competition, the top two finishers in each age group were as follows:

Age 8 and Under

1st - Elyse Hanna

2nd - Ben Alliker

Age 10 and Under

1st - Rhan Miller

2nd - Aiden Johnson

Age 13 and Under

1st - Nyah Singh

2nd - Tia Singh

Age 17 and Under

1st - G’Angelo

Edgecombe

2nd - Lorenz Shearer

The golfers said they all enjoyed participating in the tournament and they had a lot of fun in doing so.

“I feel happy. I feel I could accomplish a lot of stuff like soccer and football. I’m a fan of football, but I never had the guts to do it.

“But winning this has made me feel as if I can do it,” said Miller, who has been involved in the golf programme for two years.

This was Miller’s first time winning a divisional title and the nine-year-old fifth grader at Queen’s College said this is just the beginning of great things to come.

Hanna, who has also been in the programme for “two whole years,” said she loves it because she has been able to develop a lot of confidence in herself.

“We did the chipping green and all I had to do was try my best and I won,” said the eight-year-old third grader at Xavier’s Lower School. “I was very pleased in what I did.”

Identical twin sisters Nyah and Tia Singh have been having a battle against each other every time they compete and Saturday was no exception.

“I felt like I did very well today,” said Nyah, who decided to enter golf because she wanted a sport to compete in. “We have a rivalry, but I always beat her.”

Tia Singh, however, pointed out that it’s only “by a few points.”

But Nyah said it doesn’t matter because she beat Tia every time.

The 13-year-old ninth graders at Global Academy said it’s all about having fun.

But Tia admitted that at the end of the day, she’s always hoping that she can turn the tables on Nyah.

For Edgecombe, he’s not challenged as the siblings, but after being a part of the programme for just three months, he admitted that he has caught on quite well.

“It’s a fun sport. You don’t have to say you can’t be like this person. You can actually catch up in practice and make up for the mistakes you made when you last played,” said the 16-year-old St Augustine’s College 11th grader.

Rolle, a professional golfer and instructor of the Fourteen Clubs Golf Academy, said they had about 24 participants who all helped to make it an exciting competition.

“All of the categories were represented very well,” Rolle said.

“Today, it was the first time that we introduced our Operation 36 tournaments and so every other week, we will be doing the same thing.

“As the participants are able to shoot 36 or better over these nine holes, they will be able to progress and play from further yardage out.

“Today, the results were pretty good. We had about eight or nine competitors who were able to hoot 36 or better and some of them were just a few over. So we have some work to do. That’s why we are doing it every other week so in between time, they can work on their skills.”

The next tournament for the youngsters is all set to take place on November 19.