Both team and individual accolades were earned at the recently completed 2025 South Island Age Group Championships hosted at the Coringa Golf Club over 15-17 April. With the course in great condition following the club’s recent Men’s & Women’s Open, visitors from all over NZ came to compete for the respective Boys & Girls u16 and u19 titles. Additionally, the Boys South Island Age Group title was also on the line with the provinces of Aorangi, Otago, Tasman, and Canterbury all selecting 6-person teams with the 4 best scores from those players from rounds 1 and 2 of the event being used to calculate the winning province.
After the opening 2 days of competition, it was the host province of Canterbury that prevailed in this South Island teams competition. Round one saw the team post a score of 289 with Cooper Moore shooting 68, James Mordaunt 71, and Mitchell Redmayne and Etienne Collier both shooting 75 to round out the 4 contributing scores. In round 2 the four counting scores were contributed from Cooper Moore 71, Alfie Bell 73, Uny Shao 73, and Etienne Collier 75 to finish with a round 2 score of 292 and a team total of 581. That was enough to comfortably claim the top spot from second place Otago on 594 and third place Tasman on 597.
In the individual divisions, there was also many strong showings from Canterbury players, with medals won in all divisions. The U19 Men’s division was comfortably won by Clearwater’s Cooper Moore whose rounds of 68 (-5), 71 (-3), and 67 (-6) gave him a -12 total to win by an impressive 11 shots. Other notable Canterbury player finishes included Ethan Lam, Etienne Collier, Alfie Bell, and Jonathan Fry who all finished in 7th place equal with their +4 tournament totals.
In the Boy’s U16’s division, Russley’s James Mordaunt played an amazing 3rd round to climb 6 spots in the final round with his -6 under round of 67. This finish allowed him to claim the 3rd place medal with a tournament total of +1. Uny Shao was the next best placed U16 Boys with his 8th place finish with Harrison Lund back in 9th equal.
In the Women’s event podium finishes were also achieved in both the U16 and U19 divisions. Firstly in the U16’s Vanessa Lim finished in a share for 2nd with her tournament total of 5+. Slightly further back was Russley teammate Alice Fry who finished at +9 in 5th place. In the U19’s, Alisia Ren consistent play throughout earned her a 3rd place medal as she finished with +1 total highlighted by her second round 71 (-3.) She was followed by Junie Chang who finished in 5th place with her tournament total of +6.
