Yorkshire golf: Danny Willett's Masters win heralds season of outstanding success for Sheffield Union

For the highlight of 2016 was former union stalwart Danny Willett, of Rotherham, winning the Masters at Augusta in April.

Willett and two other ex-union players, Matt Fitzpatrick (Hallamshire) and Lee Westwood (Lindrick) also went on to play in the Ryder Cup at Hazeltine.

The Augusta win prefaced a campaign that would see Sheffield retain both the Yorkshire Inter-District League title and Team Championship.

The future also looks bright as their junior team matched the feat of their elders by winning their league.

Several players helped Yorkshire retain the Northern Counties League title and become English champions while individual successes included Ben Brewster (Wheatley) setting a course record at Fulford in the Northern qualifier for the Brabazon Trophy with an eight-under-par 64.

The union's major individual event, the Sheffield Plate, was won by Alex Fitzpatrick, of Hallamshire, who along with club-mate Barclay Brown and Rotherham's Charlie Daughtrey won England colours at Boys and Under-16 levels.

Sheffield's Golfer of the Year was Tankersley Park's Lewis Hollingworth, whose season included winning the union's stroke play championship, while Junior Golfer of the Year was Jack Wilson, from Hallowes.

Hillsborough's Clive Downing won the England Golf Medal to become the men's handicap golfer of the year, Nick Poppleton (Wath) won the Lee Westwood Trophy at Rotherham, and Tom Slattery and George Taylor, from Sitwell Park, came first and second respectively in the European Junior Open held at Garforth.

The dinner and prize presentation, sponsored by iGolfStudio at the Holiday Inn, was attended by more than 300 players and officials.