D’Souza Continues Red-Hot Form
Leon D’Souza was the stand-out golfer in the month of December during which more than 150 junior golfers competed in a trio of holiday tournaments organised by the HKGA. Still on a high from his play-off win in the AmBank SportExcel International Junior Championships in Malaysia, D’Souza returned to Hong Kong to lead his HKGA team to victory in the 16th Junior Golf Team Championship at the Hong Kong Golf Club. A few days later the 16-year-old claimed a seven-shot win in the HKGA Winter Junior Championship at the Jockey Club Kau Sai Chau Public Golf Course. Two rounds of 69 on the New Course at Fanling helped D’Souza’s HKGA team win the Dr George Choa Cup in the Junior Golf Team Championship, a two-day invitational event for teams across Hong Kong and southern China. D’Souza (138) was backed up by fellow national team players Isaac Lam (146), Michael Regan Wong (149) and Vivian Lee (153), all pictured, as they stormed to a 13-shot winning margin over the second-placed Shenzhen Golf Association team. In the Winter Junior Championship, D’Souza and Lee claimed the boys’ and girls’ title respectively over 36 holes of the North Course at the Jockey Club Kau Sai Chau. D’Souza (145) fired the tournament’s only sub-par round of 70 on day two to win by seven over Yue Yin-Ho (152) while 15-year-old Lee (159) narrowly defeated Queenie Lai Ying-Tung (161).
Future Stars Shine in EFG Bank Junior Tour Final Hong Kong’s next generation of golfing stars were on parade in the recent EFG Bank Junior Tour Grand Final at Hong Kong Golf Club’s Deep Water Bay. Eleven-year-old Stephanie Wong fired the lowest round of the day with a 59 whilst Yuka Murakami celebrated her second hole-in-one in a week. Wong clinched the Girls’ 11-12 division with her oneover-par 59 whilst 14-year-old Charles Chung (Boys’ 13-14) was the leading boy on 61. Murakami won the Girls’ 13-14s with the best possible start: a hole-in-one on her opening tee shot. Incredibly, it was the 14-year-old’s second ace in a week, having holed out at Kau Sai Chau a few days earlier, and the third ace of her young career following a hole-in-one at Fanling last summer. Albert Chiu, Chief Executive of EFG Bank in the Asia Pacific region commented: “The number of entries for this year’s Junior Tour has been higher than ever and the quality of golf in the Grand Final was the best yet. EFG Bank is very proud to have contributed to the growth of golf in Hong Kong since we teamed up with the Hong Kong Golf Association six years ago.” 42
HK GOLFER・FEB 2015
The Grand Final was the climax to the Hong Kong Golf Association’s season-long EFG Bank Junior Tour which featured 18 tournaments for hundreds of young golfers aged 6 to 14 at venues including SkyCity Nine Eagles Golf Club, the Executive Nine Course at Clearwater Bay Golf and Country Club and Deep Water Bay. HKGOLFER.COM