Junior Champions & Medal Winners Championship

The event 

The Lothians Boys' Champion of Champions was started at Craigmillar Park in their Centenary year in 1995 when they presented the Champions Trophy. Since then, wherever possible, the venue has been at a Lothians club celebrating its Centenary or other significant anniversary. 

It is interesting to note that the first winner of the Speirs Trophy, the prize on offer in the Lothians' Boys' Championship, was J Aitchison (Caermount) and this long-standing non course-owning club now supports Lothians junior golf by sponsoring the handicap prizes in the Boys' Champion of Champions event. Two winners of the event, 1998 and 1999 champion David Inglis and 2002 victor Lloyd Saltman, went on to represent Great Britain & Ireland in the Walker Cup.  

In the face of decreasing entries over the previous few years it was decided to change the entry requirements in 2024 and rebrand the event as The Junior Champions & Medal Winners Championship. It will also be the first Junior OOM qualifying event.

It will now be open to all Junior Champions from 2024 and any player who has won a Club Junior medal in 2024, if your club hold such events, provided they still meet the age limit as stated in the Tournament rules, which is ‘ All players must have a Handicap Index and have been under the age of 18 on 31st December in the year prior to the competition in which they became champion.’

If a joint Junior Championship Competition is undertaken at your Club and the winner was a girl, she is entitled to be entered as your Junior Champion. Where separate competitions are held then only the Boys Champion is entitled to be entered. Similarly, if Joint Boys/Girls Medals are held then any Medal winner can be entered in this competition. If you hold separate Boys/Girls Medals then only Boys can be entered.

Entries can only be made by your club secretary so please ask them about it if you qualify and are interested. The closing date is 7th March 2025.

The winner on the day will recieve the Handicap Plate and the top four scratch players will qualify to play for the Champions Trophy in a  matchplay event with  Semi Finals and Final to be played, at a course still to be announced, on Tuesday, 12 August and Thursday, 14 August 2025. These are fixed dates so if any of the leading scratch players are unavailable then it will be the top four available players that will play.

The history of the event Champion of Champions event and a list of the winners can be seen by clicking the 'History' heading at the bottom of the list on the left hand side of this page.

2024

Ravelston provided the challenge for 26 boys intent on becoming our first champion of the year in this first stage of the newly organised event. The original field of 34 had been reduced to 26 after a number of call offs but the addition of club medal winners had added to the field. Many clubs however did not enter medal winners and it is hoped that this situation will improve in 2025. 

Ethan Robertson (Duddingston) managed a net score of 68 to become the second winner of the handicap plate. He won on a count back from Owen Melrose (Turnhouse) (68) and Lewis Porteous (Craigielaw) (69)

The 4 lowest scratch players were Owen Melrose (Turnhouse) (69), James Wood (Bathgate) (71)  Georgie Jackson (Turnhouse) (72) and David Li Ferguson (Prestonfield) (73 bih) and they took part in the match play stage at Muirfield in August. James Wood (Bathgate) beat David Li Ferguson in the final to retain the champions trophy with Owen and Georgie both bowing out on the 17th green in the semi finals.