Juniors big week includes Ross Blackie Talbot event

This week starts the ‘Bermuda Junior Golf Week’ where there are two tournaments — the Ross Blackie Talbot International and the Par 3 Championship.

The RBTCC has become one of Bermuda’s largest and most respected charity events, with over 500 participants.

Based on the success of the Ross ‘Blackie’ Talbot Charity Classic and the generous support of the community for one of Bermuda’s most successful golfing events each year, the RBTCC introduced a Junior Pro Am as part of the Charity Classic.

The Junior Pro Am was so popular that the RBTCC expanded the junior event further and made it into a stand alone tournament in its own right and the Ross ‘Blackie’ Talbot Junior International Classic was born as a 54 hole international event with the first tournament being held in 2006.

The RBTCC with Kevin Benevides managed the event for the first four years with the support of the Bermuda Junior Golf Association.

In 2010, the BJGA assumed responsibility for managing and running the tournament with the ongoing support of the RBTCC that has remained as one of the tournaments major sponsors.

Mastermind

It should prove to be a great week, the courses are all in magnificent condition, and is guaranteed to be a huge success with all the local pros pitching in to help with the organization, in particular Alex Madeiros and Kevin Benevides with Anthony Mocklow being the mastermind behind the Par 3 at the end of the week.

The only slightly disappointing part of the week will be the number of participants.

This is due to a number of reasons, none of them being a lack of commitment among the organizers.

The island has had a significant reduction in population and therefore there are just less kids on the island.

Also the cost of accommodation is still a factor that hampers all golf tournaments on the island attracting an overseas field and is difficult to solve.

The Junior Golf week is very well organized, played on the top three courses on the island and should be a huge success going forward

My hope is that it will become one of the best junior events in the world.

One of the ways to achieve that will rely on getting reasonable accommodation costs

One way to do this would be by putting the junior golfers with host families.

Also, the event needs to be promoted more aggressively in the various junior associations around the world.

Of course, that would be much easier if we had affordable flights and accommodations.