Yorkshire golf: Neil Kinghorn's bold call leads to Wakefield title victory

ONE of the arts of good captaincy is knowing who to select for your team and who to leave out.
Wakefields winning trio with YUGC president Jonathan Plaxton, left, and Sand Moor captain Ian McMeeking.Wakefields winning trio with YUGC president Jonathan Plaxton, left, and Sand Moor captain Ian McMeeking.
Wakefields winning trio with YUGC president Jonathan Plaxton, left, and Sand Moor captain Ian McMeeking.

Wakefield’s Neil Kinghorn proved his leadership skills ahead of the Yorkshire Union of Golf Clubs’ Second Team Championship at Sand Moor by placing his faith in 14-year-old Ewan Bromley.

The youngster came through with scores of 80 81 on a day when the standard scratch for both rounds was at 75 because of testing conditions.

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It meant he backed up the superb play of Scott MacGregor (69 72) and the excellent consistency of Andy Stringer (75 75) to give the club their first victory in the championship since 1951.

“Neil plays off scratch, but he decided that he would play Ewan at Sand Moor, which I thought was a fantastic thing to do,” said Wakefield’s 2016 captain David Uttley.

Bromley is the club’s junior captain and has won all seven of the matches he has played in league competition this season.

“Neil said as far as he was concerned Ewan was playing as consistently well as anybody so thought, ‘why don’t we give him the opportunity to play in something like this?’,” continued Uttley.

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“Ewan is not a long hitter, but he hits it straight and he is very consistent.”

Uttley was extremely impressed by the sportsmanship of a Selby player paired with Bromley who offered encouragement throughout the day despite being in direct competition.

“I thanked the guy afterwards because obviously he was playing for his own team, but he gave Ewan support.

“He said he thinks Ewan has a great future.”

Uttley was also fulsome in his praise of MacGregor and Stringer.

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“It was a fantastic performance by Scott to score 69 72,” he said, “and Andy Stringer, who has been a member of our scratch team for many years, shot two solid 75s, which tells you a story in itself when standard scratch was 75.”

Wakefield were tied second after the first round, two shots back of Huddersfield, but came through to win by three from the Fixby club.

Selby, Howley Hall, Cleckheaton & District and Garforth gained the other promotion places and will compete, along with Wakefield and Huddersfield, in the YUGC Team Championship at The Bradford on August 24.

Selby were third on 457 (Neil Clark, 76 74; Chris Ramsey, 72 82; Robert Wardle, 76 77), one shot ahead of Howley Hall (Stephen Redhead, 75 77; Craig Watt, 73 74; Tom North, 80 79).

Howley Hall, in turn, finished three shots better than sixth-placed Garforth (Steve Carlisle, 75 79; Steven Taylor Heath, 81 72; Andrew King, 78 76).