MALTA YOUTHS PLACE 2ND AND 3RD IN NICK FALDO SERIES

04/08/2010

JJ Micallef and Chris Bergedahl placed 2nd and 3rd in the under 18 years division of the official qualifying golf event for the 2010 Nick Faldo Series that was held on the Dunes Course at Costa Navarino in Greece last week. With the Dunes Course set at 6634 yards equivalent to it being 21% longer than the Maltese golfers’ home club and with a rating of 142 compared to Royal Malta’s 117, the results achieved by JJ and Chris are considered to be next to special. In fact out of all the participants only one golfer managed to play under par for the course. The tough conditions resulted in a standard scratch score of 75 for both days of the tournament equivalent to 3 over par for each day.

JJ started his first round on the par-3 hole 10 with a double bogey. He had a bogey on the par-4 15th and another double bogey on the par-4 6th hole. A birdie on the par-4 2nd and pars on all the other holes meant a first round score of 4 over par. Chris started with a par on the 10th; then had a bogey on the 11th, 17th, 3rd, 4th and 8th hole. Birdies on the 1st and 16th were negated with a triple bogey on the par-3 5th hole for a first round score of 6 over par. These scores placed JJ 2nd and Chris 3rd after the first 18 holes chasing a 2-over par score posted by Uri Bogoslavsky from Israel.

These three youths were drawn together for the second day round. Uri continued to play steady on this second day and had shrugged off the Maltese challenge by the first nine holes. Uri returned an overall score for the Championship of 6 over par. JJ had 7 pars, 8 bogeys and 3 double bogeys whilst Chris had 11 pars, 4 bogeys and a very unfortunate 6 over par on the par-3 17th. These scores were sufficient for these three youths to retain their respective top positions.

Concurrently playing in the under-16 years division Daniel Holland (the third participant from Malta) found the course tougher for his younger legs. Daniel managed 13 pars, 9 bogeys, 10 double bogeys and 3 triple bogeys for an overall score of 37 over par for the tournament and a 13th place in his division.

In photo (left to right): William Beck (MGA President), Chris Bergedahl, JJ Micallef, Daniel Holland and Christos Valassakis (Glyfada Golf Club Chairman).