Junior golfers from Trefloyne headed to the European Tour Seniors Open which returned to Royal Porthcawl on July 27, bringing with it stars like Darren Clarke, Colin Montgomerie, Padraig Harrington, Paul Lawrie, Bernhard Langer, José-Maria Olazabal, Miguel Ángel Jiménez, Ian Woosnam and Vijay Singh.

And they were joined by a group of smaller golfers whose names you won’t be familiar with yet…like Liam Bain, Josh Richards, Brandan Gunter, Esmee John and Maverick Jones.

This was the contingent from Trefloyne Junior Golf Academy, invited to the event by Wales Golf for a great day out at a top international competition. The youngsters – and parents – had jumped at the chance to take in the atmosphere and also to get some tips and training from Wales’s top coaches.

On the day when the oldies and the youngsters came together there were smiles and encouraging comments from quite a few of the top players, expressing their support and encouragement for young players getting into golf with such enthusiasm, and skill.

It’s perhaps not surprising that the youngsters weren’t too familiar with the personalities teeing off. They’re the Rory McIlroy and Cam Smith generation…in fact three-year-old TJGA member Rory is named after Mr McIlroy, whereas we don’t have any José-Marias.

In any event they certainly weren’t overawed as they made the most of all the training sessions on offer from the country’s top coaches, working on their woods, irons and putting.

After a day packed with activity, as they climbed back on the coach everyone thanked Meurig Evans who made all the arrangements and Julie Llama the TJGA volunteer. And they all sent very best wishes to Dan, Theo and the coaches and all their colleagues at Wales Golf who made it such a special day.

There were some sleepy heads on the journey back, mainly Meurig, Julie and the parents. The kids were still buzzing about it all, well after the bus landed and everyone went their separate ways.