Pinehurst the pinnacle for Australia’s next generation of young golfers

The stories of many champions and the traditions of championship golf have been played out at America’s “home of golf”, Pinehurst since 1898 and last month a bunch of Australia’s best junior golfers got to test their skills against the world’s best.

On August 4th, it was the turn of 25 of our young Aussie kids playing in the US Kids Golf World Championships, to walk these hallowed fairways and try their best against others in their own age group from over 52 countries in the world.

“From the outset the kids were made to feel like they were true golf professionals, playing in a top shelf PGA event,” said Dave Farquharsen, Dad of 8 year old Hamish from Melbourne.

“Caddy bibs were distributed with their surnames emblazoned on the back, they were ferried to and from the course in chauffeur driven hire cars from Honda, the organisation and coordination of the tournament – all were as it would be if these players were indeed on the Pro circuit.”

Aged between 5 and 14 the young Aussies from all over Australia had qualified to play at “The Worlds” through playing in the US Kids Golf Local Tours in their State.

“All our qualifiers have performed well at a local level either winning or gaining a place in the US Kids Golf Local Tours which consist of 8 tournaments held at various golf courses around each State,” enthused Managing Director of US Kids Golf Australia, Kevin Wallis .

“Having the opportunity to compete on the world stage amongst 1500 other kids from all around the world however, takes their golf to another level. It is an incredible experience that gives them a true understanding of the history and traditions of the game as well as the experience of world championship golf”, Wallis said

Eight-year-old Hamish rose to the challenge as the best placed Aussie, missing out on a top 10 place by just 1 stroke over 3 rounds. Other impressive finishes came from 8 year old Ruby Kavanaugh (who took out that drone recently) (NSW) and 9 year old Sarah Hammet (Qld)

“The conditions were tough. The 35 degree heat, 100% humidity and the fastest greens I have ever seen, really challenged the kids “ Dave Farquharsen said.

“One of the greatest things to come from this event was the friendships Hamish created with his playing partners from all over the world”.

In the Parent Child Cup, Hamish and his Dad came a narrow second to a Canadian father and son team. The boys became great friends over the tournament and apart from winning a medal in next years US Kids Golf World Championships, Hamish and his Canadian friend have set themselves the long term goal to play together as professionals against the US in the Presidents Cup!