AUSTRALIA – Daniel “The Giant Slayer” Nagayo fell prey to the sleek greens of Kooringal Golf Club and wound up tied for 10th place in the 2016 Victoria Primary Schools Golf State Finals in Melbourne on Tuesday.
The 11-year old son of Dabawenyo nurse Danny and former councilor Rachel Nagayo had putting troubles all day in Kooringal drawing a total of 11 three-putts for a bloated 12 over par 83.
If it was any consolation, the rest of the field also rued the putting surface which, for kids, is like putting on a glass flooring.
“It was really tough. Everyone had trouble with the greens and if only Daniel had no three putts, he would have finished one over,” said Danny who caddied for his son.
A one over par would have placed Daniel in first runner-up. Only three players in both boys and girls divisions managed to submit a sub-par round underscoring the tough challenge of the course.
Jacob Taberner took the boys title, blitzing the field by a staggering 4 shots with his two under par 69 and engraving his name on a trophy alongside some of Australia’s current young touring pros, including Geoff Drakeford and Deyen Lawson.
It was a little tighter in determining the other two minor places with a three-player countback needed to settle the results, a countback that went all the way to individual holes. Harrison Gomez, Bailey Goodall and Max Miraglia all shot impressive scores of 73, however Harrison and Bailey took home second and third place respectively after the countback went their way.
Nagayo had beaten Bailey earlier in a tournament in Las Vegas.
In the girls division, Keeley Marx playing in her fifth PS State Final made it back to back wins in fine style shooting a two under par 69, a remarkable achievement that belies her years.
In the last four years Keeley has finished third, third, first and first. Having recently returned from the School Sport Australia national golf titles in South Australia as part of the winning Victorian team.
This puts Keeley on the same page as other two time winners of this event including recent Rio Olympic Australian Golf representative Su Oh who went back to back in 2007 and 2008 underlying the quality of player coming through the primary school system.
U12 Victorian team captain Jeneath Wong shot a 1 under 70 to finish second, with Jazy Roberts shooting 75 to fill third place in the girls section.
The tournament attracted 104 of the finest emerging Victorian golf talents who, like Nagayo, advanced from the rigorous stepladder eliminations.
The state-wide qualifying process included 2,500 primary school players teeing it up at over 45 different venues in all corners of the state.
‘’This is the perfect introduction to golf for Victorian students in a safe and fun environment. Our partnership with Golf Victoria is an industry leader across sport and education, resulting in fantastic opportunities for Victorian students,” SSV strategic manager Nick Mooney said in a post-event statement.
