Rising stars in Romanby Golf Club’s Junior Section are benefitting from sponsorship from Northallerton-based business, Simon Bailes Peugeot.
Will Edson, 16, is the team’s Junior Captain and has been a member of the club for seven years. Will currently works in the golf club’s shop every Saturday morning, and represents the section as captain on a regular basis at golfing trips and competitions. He also plays with the adult union team and has a handicap of 4.6, down from 7 earlier this year.
Other shining stars of the section include Melodie Goodall, 13, who is playing with both the junior team and the Ladies Section, and Casey Chapman, whose handicap has dropped significantly.
Lily Downs, a former member of the club’s Junior section, has been on a golf scholarship at the University of Texas El Paso since 2015, where she has been in the top four scorers for her age and scored two career lows in two of her competitions. When Lily returned home for the summer holidays, she played with Romanby Golf Club’s Ladies Section and was ‘gross’ champion.
Romanby Golf Club’s junior section has been sponsored by Simon Bailes Peugeot in Northallerton for 16 years and is the company’s longest running community commitment. The support is allowing 12 junior golfers in the section, to have coaching and lessons with a Professional Golfers’ Association expert and new uniforms for team matches and travel costs.
Will said: “Golfing has always been in my family and as most of my relatives play, so it was inevitable that I would follow suit. Working hard to get your handicap down is addictive and it takes a lot of dedication and practice to get better. I would love to be a professional golfer, like my hero Sergio Garcia and while that would take a huge amount of work, I am taking the steps to get there!
“As Junior Captain I have enjoyed watching people grow and representing Romanby Golf club in the best way possible. I have gained more responsibility, and it is nice to be able to work with the younger people and to try to be a positive role model for them.”
Steve Buxton, Captain at Romanby Golf Club, said: “It is great to see Will represent the club in such a fantastic way, both during away trips and on a weekend while working in the pro shop. Romanby Golf Club has an amazing legacy of young people that have gone on to do great things with USA golf scholarships, and supporting that calibre of talent wouldn’t be possible without help from local sponsors and respected businesses like Simon Bailes.”
Simon Bailes added: “We have been supporting Romanby Golf Club’s junior section for a number of years and the young people continue to surprise me with their dedication, hard work and talent. Romanby Golf Club has a great track record with the level of golfers that it produces and a lot of the kids have gone on to be professional, international players. It is very rewarding to play a part in supporting their futures.”