Amelia Temperley made history last weekend as she became the youngest ever person to win a Club Championship at Morpeth Golf Club.
The 11-year-old, who is only in her second season of playing golf, was crowned Ladies Club Champion after beating previous winner Julie Ribeiro 3 and 2.
The tournament at the Northumberland club is a 36-hole, scratch matchplay event, contested in a single day.
In the morning round, Amelia’s match against Lady Captain Colleen Brown went all the way to the 20th hole. Amelia was one down on the 18th hole and demonstrated a gritty determination to take victory at the second playoff hole.
In the next match, Julie Ribeiro defeated Shirley Young on the 16th hole – and so the final match was decided. Amelia would play Julie in the last 18 holes of the tournament and Colleen and Shirley would caddie, as is tradition for the Morpeth Ladies section.
Refereed by the Men’s Club Captain, Ian Kayll, it was a closely fought contest on the front nine, with many holes halved and parred. But Amelia edged away on the back nine before claiming her win on the 16th hole.
A regular on Morpeth’s first team, the victory was the icing on the cake after a very successful season for Amelia.
At the beginning of the 2023 season, her handicap was 18.8. But by the end of April, Amelia’s handicap was down to 14.3, and she now plays off 7.9. She’s claimed four gross wins on the Northern Junior tour, one being the National Girls Championship, the others allowing her to qualify on the Justin Rose Telegraph leaderboard and to compete in the Champion of Champions next July in Lough Erne, Ireland. She also won order of merit in her age category and played in the grand final.
And as well as playing for both the senior ladies' first team and the Morpeth Junior team, Amelia was also in the final of the Junior Calcutta Cup, only losing on the 18th hole.
In August, she completed her first U.S. Kids competition and came runner-up in the British Kids Championship. Amelia has also been selected to play for Northumberland Junior County team.
