JOM success for the Front Runner

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JOM Championship and JOM Final Results for 2007 - The West Midlands GC - Saturday 6th October 2007. Each of the past seven years Warwickshire has produced a very good crop of Juniors, from the likes of Rob Steele and his compatriots, through Andy Sullivan and the like, to this year's Warwickshire Junior Champion Sam Dodds and his older team mates. Each Summer, its a nervous wait to see how good the next 'batch' of juniors will be and the JOM is the best pointer to this.

Last year Harry Ibbertson took the JOM title with a huge handicap reduction. He did pretty well this year by halving his handicap to 2. His brother Tom went even better in 2007, with an 80% drop from 5 to 1.

Add to these names Adam Moran, winner of the Boys Trials, Chris Freeman (unbeaten at No 10 in the Junior Team). winner of the Mens Matchplay Michael McCormack, Nathan Ray the U14s Champion, then younger players like Sam Teather.

There are some older juniors already at low handicaps and players such as Robert Bardsely and Jamie Carney already winners and champions and vital members of the boys teams.

That 80% reduction was the reason why Tom Ibbertson led the JOM for most of this year - round on round that were low 70s and into the 60s and he was very rarely beaten in Matchplay all season. The lead over Jamie Carney would have meant that if Jamie had been able to play in the 2007 JOM Championship, then who ever finished in the Top 9 and beat the other would be overall JOM Champion.

As it was, one of Jamie's best rounds of the year qualified him for the finals of the Daily Telegraph Junior Championships, in sunny Dubai, so Tom faced three challengers, each of whom had to win to overtake Tom were he (Tom) not to feature in the top half of the Championship scores.

In 2006 Tom finished last in the JOM Championship. He left nothing to chance even if he is now an even better golfer, and so practiced at The West Midlands before last Saturday.

The three still in contention were Moran, Freeman and Will Bailey, the latter a player who just missed out on joining Jamie Carney in Dubai. Tom started with four pars then bogied the par five 5th then the very short par three 6th. If Mssrs Moran et al thought that was an opening, tom shut the door firmly with an eagle at the next to turn in 19 points, five clear of his chasers.

That was the JOM itself all tied up but there were to be more changes in the Top 20. Sam Teather's second place, with the 2000 JOM points that went with it, saw him overtake Will Bailey by the narrowest possible margin of just 5 points as the best Walmley Junior.

There were Top 20 placings for players who have near halved their handicaps in 2007 such as Kenilworth's young Daniel Lane (28 down to 11), George Allen from Shirley (13-8) and Olton's Ryan Howard (23-14), but the top places were dominated by juniors who wanted to reach low single figures over the year and had done so 'in spades'.

One more very low handicapper took the JOM Championship and its first prize, a Titleist carry bag and that was Joe Owen (off 3) from Leamington & County with a gross 71, one under par, and 40 points.

Andy Bate was top five in the Championship thus overtaking Michael McCormack for best Moor Hall Junior.

So Tom Ibbertson topped the pile of more than 1100 Junior registered for the 2007 JOM. next year promises to be even better and if an Ibbertson is to win again, then that twin will end the year off a plus handicap. With the progress they, and others have made, then individual and County success will be as good as any season before.

Thanks go to :

The Warwickshire Union of Golf Clubs for their support of the JOM

All the club Junior Organisers who have used the system to award Club Points

The Birmingham Post & Mail for sponsoring the JOM Trophy

Titleist for their support and providing the extensive prizes - more than £ 1400 worth and a dozen ProVs to each best scorer from a Club

The West Midland Golf Club for hosting the JOM Championship

The final JOM table is now available by clicking on the link on the home page

More pictures will be added shortly to the gallery to be found in COUNTY MEN | CHAMPIONSHIPS | JUNIOR | PICTURES

The JOM Championship Results

1. Joe Owen (Leamington & County) 40 pts 3000 JOM points

2. Sam Teather (Walmley) 38 pts 2000

3. Rob Holland (Walmley) 37 points 1500