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Golf students claim national AoC title

Published
Friday 11 May 2018

A team of Level 3 BTEC Golf Studies learners from Myerscough College has won the national AoC Sport Open Golf Championship at St Andrews, smashing a tournament record in the process.

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Grady Rogerson, Jake Hibbert, Jack McPhail & Luke Bartram win the national AoC Sport Open Golf Championship at St Andrews

The 2018 AoC (Association of Colleges) Sport Open Championships returned to the superb Fairmont St Andrews resort in Scotland, with Myerscough College battling it out with eight other colleges from across the country in team and individual events.

It was a record-breaking competition, which saw some of the best scoring in the Championships’ eight-year history, with some exceptional performances from the Myerscough students over the two-day Open competition. In total, 34 golfers from around the country battled it out in the mixed individual nett, the boys’ gross, girls’ gross and the coveted Open Championship team prize.

The Myerscough College team consisted of 16-year-olds Jack McPhail and Jake Hibbert, and 17-year-olds Luke Bartram and Grady Rogerson. In the team event they returned an 11 under par total on day two to record a score of 205 – a record for the AoC Open Golf Championships. Myerscough’s day two score was 22 strokes lower than day one and with a total of 432, Myerscough comfortably took home the Claret jug for the fifth time.

In the individual boys’ gross event (scores from scratch) Jake finished second and Luke in third place, with Luke also second in the nett event (scores with handicap added).

The title caps another great year for Myerscough College’s F.E golf students, with the success on the course adding to the programme’s reputation.

In addition to the AoC Championship win, Myerscough qualified for the 2018 national finals of this season’s Intercollegiate Tour (ICT), after battling throughout a tough winter to record league titles in both the Gross and Nett leagues. Myerscough then finished third nationally, with the golf study programme at Myerscough producing league champions for the last nine years.

Craig Lea is the Head PGA Advanced Golf Professional at Myerscough College and said: ‘’We’re very pleased with the results and there were some superb individual performances. It is a fantastic achievement for our FE students, who have worked extremely hard throughout their coaching programme.

‘’We have a proven track record over a number of years now of the programme here is working. I’m sure that in the years to come we’ll have a number of players making it big.

‘’We have an increasing reputation with the right processes in place, do things right and the success we’ve had already nationally and at county level builds awareness of what we’re about as a coaching programme.

‘’Here at Myerscough it’s all about giving students the best opportunity to be the best they can be.’’

For details of the range of golf study programmes available at Myerscough College & University Centre, click here

by Dave Salmon

DSalmon@myerscough.ac.uk