Golf : Tree In Six-Strong Squad For South Africa

England Under 14 Champion Toby Tree has been included in a six-strong boys squad to compete in the annual triangular tournament against the hosts and Canada at Zebula Golf Club near Pretoria in South Africa on 13th - 15th January.

He will be the youngest of the party that includes boy internationals Jonathan Bell, Tom Boys, Tom Lewis and Max Smith, and Under 16 cap Liam Harper.

Tree, from Sussex (photo courtesy of Tom Ward), won the Under 14 title at Coxmoor last summer and is a member of the England Under 16 training squad for this year.

Harper, from Kent, is also an Under 16 Squad member having made been given his international baptism in last autumn’s Under 16 matches against Scotland and Ireland. Also from Kent, Bell won the Under 14 Championship in 2004 an enjoyed a successful 2008, winning the Sir Henry Cooper Junior Masters and the South East Junior Championship and finishing third in the Fairhaven Trophy.

Boys, a former Cheshire Under 15 and Under 16 Champion, won the Fairhaven trophy last year and lost a playoff for the Canadian Junior Challenge
Lewis, from Hertfordshire, finished runner-up to Boys in the Fairhaven Trophy and was tied third in the Brabazon Trophy, a performance that earned him a share of the Henriques Salver for the best performance in the championship by a player aged under 20. Lewis also finished tied fourth in the Carris Trophy and was runner-up in the individual rankings in the Honda Junior Championship in Japan which England won.

Smith, from BB&O, had three runners-up finishes in 2007 including the English Under 16 Championship, while last year he finished third in the Sir Henry Cooper Junior Masters, fourth in the Canadian Junior Challenge and reached the fourth round of the British Boys.

Bell, Boys and Smith made their England debuts at boys level in last year’s Boys Home Internationals, while Lewis earned his first boys cap in the 2008 European Boys Team Championships. All four are members of the England Under 18 training Squad.

The round robin match play format at Zebula is six singles on day one, three foursomes on day two and six more singles on the final day.
The full squad for South Africa is: Jonathan Bell (Royal Blackheath), Tom Boys (Royal Liverpool), Liam Harper (Lydd), Tom Lewis (Welwyn Garden City), Max Smith (Newbury Racecourse) and Toby Tree (Worthing).