Junior golf thrives at royal liverpool. here we profile two young players who started early and now look likely to make their mark on the adult game.


EMMA GODDARD


When Emma Goddard was 16 she had to choose between a career as an international ladies footballer or a future in golf. As luck would have it she chose golf. Now she’s the toast of RLGC after winning the Cheshire Championships 2013.


Emma, who is 22 and plays off


+1, joins an illustrious list of former winners from the Club which includes Alison Christian Jones, Audrey Briggs, Helen Heggarty (nee Latham) and Lisa Dermott. Emma was only eight when she found


some old golf clubs in her grandad Ken’s garage and wanted to know what they were for. A trip to Allerton Municipal Golf Course soon solved the mystery. Her talent for the game was soon spotted and it wasn’t long before


Matt


Rising Stars


she became the youngest ever Ladies’ Club Champion and Course Record holder. In 2002 aged 11 she won the British


Wee Wonders Series and went on to represent the UK in the US Kids World Championships in Williamsburg, Virginia, 2003. She has also competed in three Junior Callaway World Championships in California. Then came success in the Faldo Series


under-18 category. She won through to the Faldo Grand final in Mission Hills, China, in December 2007, where she finished second. This entitled her to play in the Aberdeen Asset Management Ladies Scottish Open at Loch Lomond. In 2012 Emma joined RLGC thus


fulfilling her grandad Ken’s dearest wish. She has quickly become an active


Jordan


Matt Jordan clearly feels very much at home sitting in the


Spike Bar at Royal Liverpool Golf Club. He should be because he has been a member for more than ten years; he joined at the age of seven.


He cannot remember when


he first started playing the game, probably just after he started walking, he says. He fondly remembers swinging a plastic club in the back garden hitting ‘air flow’ balls under the watchful


eye of his father, Andy. Matt has a great golfing pedigree. Andy has won several Gold Medals and has been Club Champion on a number of occasions. His Grandad, Tony, another highly competitive member and former Captain of Wallasey Golf Club, was the highest ranked badminton player in England and a Commonwealth Games Silver Medalist. In the early days, Matt would


play a 5 hole ‘loop’ from the first tee, trying to better his score each time. His first par came on the par 3, 4th hole and his first birdie on the 2nd following a ‘chip-in’, something his opponents


and much valued member. Emma was crowned Cheshire


Champion at Bramhall GC at the end of April 2013. She came through the stroke play qualifying in second place to Gemma Clews from Delamere Forest. The pair went on to meet in a nail- biting final. Emma went two up over the opening holes but Gemma came back strongly leaving Emma two down going into the last five holes. A couple of birdies saw Emma draw level with one to play. Gemma failed to get up and down leaving Emma two putts for the win!


When she’s not playing golf Emma


enjoys time with family and friends as well as an occasional game of football for Everton Ladies reserve team. n Sara White


have got pretty used to seeing him do.


His best round however, came


in the 2012 Summer Meeting. Standing on the 13th tee he found himself 3 under par gross after an excellent start. A poor tee shot left him in a difficult spot and a bogey was a distinct possibility. Instead, he managed to hole his recovery shot for an unlikely birdie, which sparked a fantastic run of more birdies on the 14th, 16th and 17th holes. Just missing a final birdie attempt at the 18th hole meant he had ‘tapped in’ for a 65 gross, an amateur course record that still stands today. This winter, Matt has worked


hard on his game with the RLGC Professional and Cheshire Coach, John Heggarty. Using the advanced ‘Trackman’ system, he is working on elements of his long game. He is hoping to compete in the British Boys’ Championship at Prestwick in August and the EGU Under 18 Championship (Carris Trophy) at Moor Park, Hertfordshire. He will have a busy Summer as Junior Captain as well as completing his ‘A level’ studies at Calday Grange Grammar School. He hopes to have a career connected to golf in some way; he is certainly on the right track to succeed. Matthew Way


ROYAL LIVERPOOL GOLF CLUB 2 014 MAGAZINE


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