European Boys Team warm up in SGU Junior Tour - 29th Jun 2004

All six members of Scotland's 2004 European Boys Team will be in action in the Scottish Golf Union Junior Tour Event 3, at Craigielaw this week (Thursday 1 July).

The team, which includes BP Scottish Boys Champion Scott Henry, head to Finland two days after the Junior Tour event, to begin their challenge for the title won by Scotland in 2000.

Cardross ace Henry, is currently poised in second position in the Junior Tour Ranking table, with an average score against the CSS of 0.75. He trails Graham Turner of West Linton, who heads the table after finishing in the top ten at the Scottish Youths Stroke Play Championship last week.

The Junior Tour is a new to 2004, and aims to provide the country's brightest young golfers with top-level competitive play over some of the Scotland's most challenging courses.

The 2004 Tour comprises of six events, including the Scottish Boys Stroke-Play, Scottish Youths Stroke-Play and Scottish Under 16 Championships, along with three new events.

Staged around existing National and Area fixtures in the calendar, the primary focus of the three new events is to provide additional competition at national level. They will also give coaching staff and selectors an opportunity to assess players and their development over challenging courses. When combined with the other national tournaments, the Junior Tour provides an excellent stage for the best young golfers in Scotland to perform on.

The new events, aimed at Under 18's, are 36 hole competitions staged over one day, with the field limited to 40 competitors. Selected by the Boys Selection Committee, the field is based on those players who perform consistently well in other events in the amateur calendar, and on players in the Regional and National squads at the time.

The first of the new events took place at Kingsbarns Links in March, followed by the second at Kilmarnock (Barassie) a month later.

The Junior Tour comprises a stroke average award, based on the same system used for the men's Scottish Golf Ranking competition. This will ensure that no one player is penalised for not playing in all of the events. However, the system recognises players who perform consistently well in the competitions they do play in.

sportscotland, through the national junior golf programme, branded as 'clubgolf', have committed £6,000 to the running of the 2004 Tour, and the SGU manage and administer each event.

Related Links

• http://www.scottishgolfunion.org

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