EUROPEAN TOUR golfer Graeme Storm is looking forward to the third year of hosting his own junior golf tournament.

And after the success of the last two years, Storm has decided to split this year’s competition for different age categories and at different venues.

The Graeme Storm Junior Open in association with Dyke House College will continue to be played at its host venue, Hartlepool Golf Club, on Monday, May 7. This year it has teamed up with The Telegraph Junior Golf to be a first round qualifier.

The Storm Junior Open has four categories with the boys and girls separated to compete in 11-14 and 15-18 groups. There will be a maximum of 36 handicaps.

Then the Mini Storm Trophy will be held at The Wynyard Club on Saturday, May 19 and will be a nine-hole competition over a shortened course for boys and girls aged 7-10.

The two events will raise money for the Finlay Cooper Fund after forging a strong link with former Middlesbrough defender Colin Cooper in recent years.

Storm said: “Our first competition was in 2016 with an impressive field of 132 competitors. Juniors are now travelling from all over the UK to compete at Hartlepool Golf Club on an annual basis and it is exciting to have launched the Mini Storm Trophy now too.

“An important aspect of the day is to raise money for a charity that my wife Sara and I have become close to – The Finlay Cooper Fund. All entry fees and raffle money raised is donated to this extremely worthwhile children’s charity.”

Anyone wishing to sign up for either of the competitions should go to www.graemestorm.co.uk for more details.

THE Thirsk & Northallerton Golf Club junior team has returned from the ‘Home Nations Championships’ having proudly achieved fifth place.

This was no mean feat after competing in some hard fought matches against other teams from England, Scotland and Wales.

The Northern Echo:

Thirsk and Northallerton: Ben Collinson, Richard Fawcett (Captain), Harry Collinson, Connor Stout, Joe Hay, Liam Maddock, Julia Czechowska.

A club spokesperson stated: “This was a fantastic learning experience for these talented young golfers and they all did themselves, their parents and the club proud.

“After the excitement of the journey and two very good practice days, they were devastated when, sadly, they heard about the accident involving some of their friends, in which Mason Pearson and George Turner tragically died.

“Members of the team were very upset and subdued on the Thursday morning which was day 1 of the actual competition. They coped very well, picked themselves up and dedicated their matches to the boys who lost their lives.”

Thirsk & Northallerton were beaten by Bramshaw, the English team that went on to become the champions, they drew with Scottish champions from St Andrews before defeating Welsh team Radyr and Scottish team Lundin.