Essex-Kent golf looking for balance amongst players

A golf course is seen in this file photo.

Austin Wills beat Andrew Baker to win the 96th edition of the Essex-Kent Junior Golf Tournament, winning the match play final on the final hole.

“I was playing good on the front nine,” said Wills, who had a three-hole lead at the turn. “Good weather. Wind started to pick up on the back. I got a little sloppy on the back, but, you know, they will pull through and keep it going.”

Baker came back and took the lead on hole 15.

“16, 17, 18 just came down the stretch and he had a couple of nice up and downs and 17 and 18 to tie 17 and to win on 18 so yeah, it was a good match. Nice playing by Austin,” Baker said.

There were over a hundred golfers at the tournament but only six players were girls. The board is hoping to balance the ratio and they started with a name change this year. The event is now known was the Essex-Kent Junior Golf Tournament.

“We would like to see more girls,” said tournament Director Bernie Grabowiecki who told CTV News the tournament opened the door for girls to play in 2020, with 20 signing up. “We know they felt that they were intimidated here. So part of the thing is we just it's a junior golf tournament open to everybody.”

Prior to Wednesday, the girls were teeing off from the same place as the boys, which made it difficult to compete. A change in the rules could help.

“They're now playing the forward tees and the boys are playing the middle tees,” Grabowiecki said. “We're hoping that they feel that it's a fair golf course and they have a chance to win some of our flights and prizes.”

That's what the board wants to see, because they've yet to have a girl reach a championship flight.

“We have a big junior program here of 110 active juniors in our program, and about 50 per cent are girls,” said Roseland General Manager Dave Deluzio, who feels the key is keep the girls playing when they hit their mid-teens.

“My job as the head professional here, to get our juniors from our junior program to play in this. We have a first tee golf program and we're going to keep pushing to get boys and girls playing this event for a long time moving forward,” said Deluzio, who feels with a strong junior program already in place at Roseland, it's only a matter of time before a girl plays a boy for the overall championship. “That's not too far off.”