GMGA Junior D’Arcy Whyte Excels
Posted on: 30 August
As part of the GMGA Junior program we were able to provide financial support to D’Arcy Whyte (Rich River GC) to help him participate in the Interstate Australian Schools Competition.
D’Arcy thanked the GMGA for their support and provided a summary of his week of top-class competition, which has been edited for this article.
Dear David, (Secretary GMGA)
What a fantastic week of golf. Thankyou GMGA once again for your valuable donation.
It was a very busy week of golf with competition commencing at 7am each day.
The Championship Program details are as follows:
Sunday 18th Aug – Opening Ceremony at Royal Canberra Golf Club
Monday 19th Aug – Day 1 of Competition (36 holes stroke play) at Royal Canberra Golf Club
Tuesday 20th Aug – Day 2 of Competition (36 holes match play) at Fairbairn Golf Club
Wednesday 21st Aug – Australian Institute of Sport Day (Player Development Session, Sportex Exhibit Experience & AIS Tour).
Thursday 22nd Aug – Day 3 of Competition (36 holes match play) at Federal Golf Club
Friday 23rd Aug – Day 4 of Competition (18 holes match play) at Murrumbidgee Golf Club, followed by Closing Ceremony.
What a great opportunity for a young up and coming golfer.
D’Arcy played consistent golf on the first day. Shooting 3 over on the first 18 holes, following up with 3 under on the second 18 to finish even with the card. This placed him in 9th overall, off the stick (gross event) and 2nd in the handicap (Net) event. D’Arcy is pictured with the silver medal for Boys Net runners up in the individual stroke play. He had the best score for the Vic team for the first day.
The next 3 days of golf were Matchplay. There were 6 players in each team, and each State played each other in a round robin competition.
Unfortunately, D’Arcy lost his individual matches against Qld and N.S.W. on Tuesday. Then redeemed himself by winning matches against W.A. and S.A. on Thursday and against ACT on Friday. D’Arcy achieved the honour of winning the highest number of points in match play within the Boys Vic Team.
Unfortunately, the Vic boys’ team did not perform as well as hoped. With wins against S.A. and A.C.T. The results for the week – Team Vic Boys finished 4th, and Team Vic Girls finished 5th.
Wednesday, the players had a tour of the Australian Institute of Sport to see the facilities and see where the high-performance athletes train. In addition to player development session and Q&A with Brendan Jones (PGA golf professional.) where players listened to his stories and insights as a touring professional for them to gain an understanding of what the life of a touring golf professional looks like.
D’Arcy summarised his week as an excellent opportunity to play for Team Vic at the School Sports Australia 18 & Under Golf Championships in Canberra. I played against high quality golfers on excellent courses which challenged me physically and mentally. I have really enjoyed myself and I am grateful for the experience.