The positive cooperation with the Royal Malta Golf Club and the PGA of Malta has managed to attract ninety-nine juniors to participate in the Malta Junior Open. The three-day competition, to be played in the last week of March, will be the first Maltese golf tournament endorsed by the R&A towards its World Amateur Golf Ranking points system. The players hail from twenty-two different European countries with strong contingents arriving from Germany, Italy, Turkey, Cyprus, England and Poland. Thirty players are girls, and more than half the field have a playing handicap of five or better.

Beck re-elected as President of Malta Golf Association

During an Annual General Meeting held recently, William Beck was re-elected as President of the Malta Golf Association (MGA) for another four-year period. This will be the fourth successive term for Mr Beck since the Association was founded in 2006. Also elected without contention were Ian Restall, as General Secretary, Kenneth Micallef, as Treasurer, Maureen Borg and Doreen Balzan as Executive Directors.

The MGA’s annual meeting looked back at the Association’s work towards the spreading of the game on a national level and participation in the international area. The submitted reports highlighted the Association’s tasks for the forthcoming quadrennial as the game of golf undergoes changes in its rules of play and handicapping system. On a national level, the MGA seeks to complete its golf to schools’ programme through empowering all primary public schools’ physical education teachers with the necessary tools and knowledge to impart the basic skills for Maltese children to start enjoying the game of golf and to assist in preparing a team of three players towards the Special Olympics games that will be held next year in Abu Dhabi.

European Golf Association AGM to Malta in November

In November, the AGM of the European Golf Association will be coming to Malta. This AGM will attract the Presidents and/or General Secretaries from the 45 countries affiliated to the EGA as well as some executive directors from The R&A. This is the first time, since the founding of the EGA in 1937, that the AGM will be hosted by an emerging golf country. Attached with the AGM will be a forum that discusses golf’s current issues at a time which sees major exciting changes affecting how the game is played.