Talented junior is selected for prestigious tourney

This comes after the announcement by the South African Golf Association (SAGA) that four of South Africa’s top junior golfers will represent the country at the 10th Reply Italian International U-16 Championship at Golf Club Biella at the end of August.

SAGA named Wilco Nienaber from Free State, Christo Lamprecht and Martin Vorster from Southern Cape as Schaper’s teammates to fly the South African flag in the prestigious international championship, from Tuesday, August 30, to Thursday, September 1.

SAGA’s golf integration manager, Eden Thompson, will accompany the quartet, who will participate in the individual 72-hole competition and the 36-hole Nation’s Trophy team event, which is played concurrently with the first two rounds of the stroke play championship.

Schaper won the Nomads SA Boys U-15 Championship in January.

The St Dunstan’s College pupil then notched back-to-back victories in the Nomads Inland National Order of Merit event at Modderfontein and the Tshwane Junior Open to move to third in the standings, in July.

Thompson believes that the four juniors will benefit greatly from the international exposure at the Italian International U-16 Championship.

“The Italian International U-16 Championship not only counts towards the R&A World Amateur Rankings, but the tournament annually draws top amateurs from around 20 countries,” he said.

“To have that kind of exposure is immeasurable in terms of their careers and experience.

“It is a terrific opportunity for the players to measure themselves against top international opponents and to play at one of the top ranked courses in Italy.

“South Africa has participated in the championship since its inception in 2007 and a number of amateurs have performed admirably in this event, including reigning Joburg Open champion Haydn Porteous, who won the Individual Stroke Play title in 2008.”

Thompson added that the juniors are looking forward to the challenge.

“The juniors know that international competitive experience is crucial to developing and advancing their games and they relish the opportunity to go up against the best juniors in Europe,” he said.

“To play in this championship is a wonderful opportunity for the juniors to represent South Africa at Under-16 level, not only as individuals, but also a team.

“They are all very excited about the challenge ahead and we look forward to seeing how they measure up against the top players from Europe.”

READ: Schaper in tip-top shape

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