Durham’s girls hit the ground running early in their golfing careers by picking up the county’s first ever win in the Northern Counties Junior Jamboree.
The Durham team – Caylin Million (Chester-le-Street), Alice Atkinson (Durham City), Lilly-Anne Phillips (Houghton-le-Spring), Emily Holgate (Wearside), JinHan Wang (Tyneside) and Katie Westmoreland (Seaton Carew) – led the way with a total of 87 points in the two-day event, which sees players play both stableford and matchplay to earn points for their team.
Durham – represented by girls aged 12 and 13 with handicaps of 15-40, finished five points clear of hosts Lancashire as Northumberland finished third, Cheshire were fourth, and Yorkshire were fifth. The win is their first since the event began in 2006, and saw Katie Westmoreland finish as the joint top points scorer.
Durham county junior organiser Rebecca Gibson, who took on the management of the girls’ squad in November 2021 alongside coaching co-ordinator Julie Welch, said: “To see the girls do so well was fantastic, particularly swinging the momentum their way with so much good golf on the second day.
“We’ve more than doubled the number of girls involved in county coaching to 45 this season and seeing them do so well this early in their golfing careers is brilliant. We hope to see them progress into the county girls’ squad for our annual matches against the other northern counties, and on through the system from there.”
