Throughout the cold and wet weather months of the year, Golf At Goodwood runs a Winter Junior Series on The Downs and The Park course which is open to entry for all of our junior members with an active handicap. The competition is played in the stableford format maintaining a level of competition throughout the series. With ten events in total, spanning from November 2022 until March 2023, the series has seen great support from our junior members despite the unfavourable weather conditions.

So far, we have had two events in the series not completed because of bad weather, which is to be expected due to inevitable British winter. However, six events have run smoothly and have seen some great competition amongst the junior members. A special mention must go to William Hauffe, who has the most entries in the series competing in five out of the six events.

The first event of the series saw Joseph Thorne take top spot with a superb score of 31 points in some tough conditions. This included two par’s on the 3rd and the 8th hole and an impressive birdie on the 5th. Joseph narrowly took top spot by one point from William Hauffe with a score of 30 points.

The second event was won by Rocco Bateman with a score of 37 points which included impressive pars on the 5th, 11th and 13th hole. The Downs course at Goodwood can be a gruelling test for any golfer, but Rocco, playing off 27 at the time, made those three holes look easy.

The third event was won by Harry Naughton with 37 points. Harry is one of the lower handicap players competing in the series, playing off 8 and shooting a gross score of 79, including birdies on the 2nd and 16th hole round The Downs course. This was closely followed by another low handicap junior in Thomas Bissatt, playing off 9 and scoring a superb 35 points for second place.

The fourth event was won by ever present William Hauffe with the best score of the series so far of 38 points. William battled through the tough January conditions to achieve this score and was rewarded with a par on the 18th hole to finish. He was closely followed by Dougal Rattray in second place with 37 points.

The fifth event was won again by William Hauffe with another great score of 37 points. William’s consistency of playing in the other events paid off with another win, with a special par on the difficult par 3 12th hole.

With nicer weather comes better scores, and this was clearly evident in the sixth event of the series. George McCallum, playing off 25 handicap, took the crown in first place with a staggering 47 points. This included a birdies on the 2nd and 7th hole, plus some par’s on the 6th, 10th and 18th hole. An amazing score by George overshadowed two brilliant rounds for Harry Naughton scoring 41 points in second place and Cameron McLeod scoring 40 points in third place.

With two more events left in the series (weather permitting), the competition is tightly poised for top spot in the Order of Merit as seen in the table below: