Week 2 we did chipping and following on from Week 1’s putting class the youngsters really did well. In the first class Damian took the honours with Jiya second and in the second class it was Yusuf taking the honours with Yahavi second. Below are the prize winners receiving their prizes from Taylor and Owen followed by two chips from Yahavi and Daniyaal.

During the chipping class Neil did some amazing work with Azayah who is our youngest up and coming golfer, here are the videos

In the girls 7 to 8 year old age group it was 8 year old Kirana Govender who came away with first prize. Kirana has been coming to First to Eighteen for the last 3 years with her 2 older sisters, Niskaya and Dasarah, who finished 4th in their respective age groups. Kirana came from a few shots back to claim a wonderful win in her first multi day golf tournament. Congratulations Kirana, First to Eighteen is extremely proud of you. Below are newspaper clips and pics of Kirana holding her beautiful trophy with proud her parents Kuben and Sumesh and sisters, Niskaya and Dasarah. The Saturday after the Junior Africa Challenge Niskaya joined her Dad, Kuben, in his monthly office competition at the beautiful Umdoni Golf Club and walked away with top honours.

Seven year old Hudson Mundy started the third and final day in 3rd place, 6 shots behind the leader and 3 shots behind the youngster in 2nd place. Unfortunately for the leader, he didn’t have a great day dropping shots while Hudson made and eagle and a birdie shooting a level par 36 to catch the youngster in 2nd place and force a play off. Sadly for Hudson he bogeyed the 1st play off hole to lose by 1 shot and come 2nd overall. Below are pics of Hudson with his trophys, taken at his home club Royal Durban, with Neil and I. Congratulations Hudson First to Eighteen is extremely proud of you.

Well done to all our First to Eighteen youngsters who participated in the Junior Africa Challenge we are very proud of you.

The second class we only had two youngsters, Yahavi and Hudson, with the rest being away and it was an amazing class. When it came to the competition round Liam took videos of Yahavi and Hudson and they both hit absolute rippers

But let’s go back a few steps. Hudson Mundy, the great great grandson of Olive Mundy, is part of our Saturday morning golf academy and is  ranked in the top 250 in the world in his age group and is also part of SA Kids Golf. When I heard the Olive Mundy Trophy was being contested on 22 March I approached Royal Durban Ladies Captain, Melissa Savio, and said to her that Olive Mundy’s great great grandson is part of our Academy and would you like him to take part in the prize giving. Melissa was very excited with the suggestion that Hudson be part of prize giving and asked if the Family could also give an overview of Olive Mundy. I spoke to Matt, Hudson’s Dad, and told him that the Royal Durban Ladies Captain would love to have Hudson be part of the prize giving and would the Mundy Family provide and overview of Olive Mundy, which they were delighted to do. Matt enlisted the services of his aunt, Leddel Mundy Storrer, to write the overview and also to present it at prize giving. Most of the Royal Durban Ladies had only heard of Olive Mundy and had very little idea of who she was so you can imagine looks of awe on their faces when the overview was read out

The 2025 winner of the Olive Mundy Trophy was Janis Nel on a nett 72 and the above video you can see Janis receiving her trophy from a very smartly dressed, in his SA Kids blazer and tie, Hudson Mundy

Hudson is now a Junior Member of Royal Durban and so continues the legacy of the Mundy Family at Royal Durban which is over 100 years

Below are some pics of our winners so far the term and a few videos

One of our past students, Carter Ross, went to Pinehurst to play in the US Kids World Golf Tournament where he acquitted himself very well while Hudson Mundy is now in the top 250 in the world in his age group and has been invited to play in tournaments in Thailand and Ireland in 2025. Below are pics of Carter at Pinehurst posing at the statue of the legendary Payne Stewart and Hudson with Yours Truly and Neil

Five of our youngsters were awarded at the end of year SA Kids Golf Tournament for most improved player in their age group, top 3 in best scoring average, most points and three of them were nominated for Player of the Year. Below are some pics of our youngsters at the year end tournament

The tournament was a Parent and Child Foursomes and I was privileged to play with one of our young girls. There were also prizes for the best dressed teams which we won

Below are some pics taken through the year

One of our youngsters, Connor, who has been at 1st218 for 8 years bid us farewell as he he goes to high school next. While we will miss Connor on Saturday mornings I will still have the privilege of helping him with his golf through School golf program. Connor, we wish you well in your high school years and I look forward to being able to continue helping you through the School golf program

Liam won the first lesson with Marthinus second and Yusuf won the second lessons competition. Below we see Liam, Marthinus and Yusuf receiving their prizes from Neil followed by Ana playing a great pitch shot. See also below

Below are our prize winners, Tayla, Kirana and Liam from the first lesson and Daniyaal and Hamza from the second lesson followed by two videos of Daniyaal and Yusuf

During the week Hudson played in the Junior Africa Challenge at San Lameer Golf Club and did very well coming 4th in his age group. Well done Hudson. Below the videos of Yusuf and Daniyaal putting are a two videos of Hudson on the course at San Lameer

Here we have our prize winners, Rourke, Kirana and Daniyaal followed by videos of Yusuf and Daniyaal putting