Fantasy Golf: Younger takes Mickey with victory

IN body, Chris Younger might have appeared to be walking around Disney World enjoying the company of Mickey and Minnie Mouse, but in mind, he was 10,000 miles away thinking of Adam Scott and Graeme McDowell.

For no matter what was on offer at Florida's famous theme park, it was the exploits of some of the world's top golfers at the Barclays Singapore Open that was attracting the attention of Younger.

"We were on a family holiday in Florida and you have all the delights of Disney World, but all I could do was race back to the hotel to tune into the Singapore Open," said Younger, who perhaps need not have worried so much about the eight golfers he had entrusted to win him the Yorkshire Post's online Fantasy Golf prize. For in golfing parlance, Younger's victory in the 2010 competition was almost wire to wire.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

He assumed the overall leadership of the competition in May, just a month after the start of the annual online tournament that requires golf fans to pick a team of their top eight players, and never relinquished it. November's Singapore Open was the third last tournament of a draining campaign and the victory post was almost in sight.

Nigel Dodds, who had led the pursuit of Younger throughout the season, needed a minor miracle to overhaul the runaway leader, but Younger was taking no chances.

"Nigel got close to me at one stage, he pulled to within 92 points having been 2,000 points adrift of me for a time," explained

Younger. "But fortunately I accelerated away at the right time."

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

By the time Robert Karlsson was winning the Dubai World Championship, Martin Kaymer was lifting the Race to Dubai merit title and Lee Westwood was growing comfortable in his status as the new world No 1; Younger was celebrating succeeding David Middleton as the new Yorkshire Post Fantasy Golf champion.

"I was absolutely thrilled to win," said Younger, who lives in Chester-le-Street, Durham. "Graeme McDowell was my most influential player. I brought him in at the right time, just before his win at the US Open. I had some really good players low down the order as well – the likes of Stephen Gallagher who picked up a lot of points for me. Then there were the usual suspects, Martin Kaymer and Lee Westwood, players you just had to have in your team.

"It was all down though to picking the right players at the right time, which is obviously easier said than done."

Younger's prize for winning the online tournament is a full set of Nike irons and 10 one-hour golf lessons with the PGA professional at our partners at the Nike Golf Academy at Oulton Hall in Leeds.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Younger is to donate the irons to his father Arthur, while taking up the lessons himself in an effort to prove he can play golf as well as he can manage a team of golfers.

He said: "I used to play regularly but started to pick the clubs up more often over the last year or so. Now I've got got the lessons I'm hoping I can kick on from here."