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Boys and Girls champs Sean and Ffion spearhead new-look Wales junior team
Newly crowned Welsh Boys and Girls champions Sean David and Ffion Tynan will spearhead the Wales Junior Team at the new-look Home Internationals next month.
It will be the first time the event has had combined teams, both at junior and seniors levels, with Wales hoping to become the inaugural winners with a strong junior team – particularly among the girls.
The age profile of the top women in Wales is such that the later stages of the Welsh Girls Championship at Cardiff golf club this week resembled the later stages of the Ladies Championships earlier in the year.
Only this time Pontyclun’s Ffion Tynan went one better by winning, after losing in the final of the Ladies event, including victory over younger sister Elin on her way to the final.
David completed the rare double of winning both the stroke play and match play stages of the Welsh Boys.
The two will be part of a 29 strong Wales squad as the Home Internationals will be held at one venue, over two courses, in the same week for the first time.
The event will consist of a Ladies Team with 7 players, a combined Seniors Team with 4 male and 4 female players, as well as a Junior Team with 8 boys and 6 girls.
“It will be a new format and a few interesting days at Woodhall Spa in England for our teams,” said Wales Golf Director of Performance Gillian O’Leary.
“We have a lot of talented players in the junior category so we are putting out as strong a team as possible, we hope they can take advantage of the opportunity and do well.”
Tynan is looking forward to being part of the mixed squad on the back of picking up her first Welsh national match play title, to add to English and Scottish age group titles she had won previously.
“This is pretty high up for me because it is your own national championship so it nice to win surrounded by friends and family,” said the Minchinhampton player, who beat Celtic Manor’s Jessica Atwell in the final.
“It was the first time I had played against my sister, so we were not quite sure how to handle it. We had fun, but I played well scoring about three under, so everyone thought I was a bit mean.
“I am looking forward to the Home Internationals. At first I was a bit sceptical because it is so different to what we have played before, but I know the boys well and think we will gel together to be a great team.
“I know Sean well through playing at Pyle and Kenfig so I was telling him the boys need to get plenty of points as well.”
David is pleased to see the boys and girls squads joining forces, as he realises the strength of the girls contingent.
“It will work in our favour because the girls are such a strong team this year,” said Pyle and Kenfig’s David, who beat Fleetwood’s Connor Owen in the Welsh Boys final.
“Our team is strong too so we will have a good chance to do well. I have never played in that format before so it will be fun.”
David is delighted to be going into a busy few weeks on the back of achieving a rare double at the Welsh Boys by winning both the stroke play and match play stages.
“I won the stroke play in 2018, so I was determined to follow it up better this time,” he said.
“I had one of those weeks, the course suited me and I played well so I am over the moon.”
After the Home Internationals both Tynan and David will be heading to college in America, Tynan returning to Arkansas and David starting in Alabama.
Wales teams:
Boys: Tom Bastow, Toby Bishop, Caolan Burford, Sean David, Jamie Dean, Connor Owen, Joe Jones, Matthew Sandoz
Girls: Jess Atwell, Darcey Harry, Isabella Hopkins, Harriet Lockley, Gracie Mayo, Ffion Tynan
Ladies: Lea Anne Bramwell, Lucy Jones, Ellen Nicholas, Beth Morris, Kath O’Connor, Jordan Ryan, Carys Worby
Senior Men: Adrian Bragg, Nick Grimmitt, Phil Sutton, Andrew Williams
Senior Ladies: Ann Lewis, Jane Rees, Sharon Roberts, Julie Thomas
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