The Loretto School Golf Academy has won the prestigious ISGA Home Internationals for a remarkable third time in succession, reaffirming its position at the United Kingdom’s foremost golf academy.
The Independent Schools Golf Association (ISGA) held its Home Internationals at Royal Portrush Golf Club in Northern Ireland on the 27th and 28th February. The top finishing schools from last year's knockout, which had over 120 schools competing, qualified to play for their country.
Loretto School qualified as the best Scottish school and was selected to represent Scotland. Monmouth represented Wales, Millifield represented the best English school and Coleraine Academical as the best Irish school. The format was medal play over 2 rounds of golf to find the winning team. Each school fielded a 4 man team.
The Loretto team looked the part in their new Adidas kit for the first round on the Valley in some pretty windy conditions. Loretto’s Carl Kolloss led the team out and after a slow start fought back for a four over par 72. Sami Bouzabia got off to a blistering start with five birdies in the first six holes but he was unable to maintain the momentum dropping back to a four over par 72. Alexander Wilson played steady golf the whole round to shoot a two over par 70. Ben Skinner was out last and shot the low round of the day with an excellent two under par 66. This gave the team a four over par total which put out us three shots clear of Millfield in second place.
The final round was on the Dunluce. This is a fantastic course which is due to host the Irish Open in the summer. Once again, the Loretto team looked most impressive in their striking red shirts and they were appeared focused and determined to defend the title for the third year in a row.
Playing in reverse score order Carl Kolloss led the team out playing a crucial round shooting a two under par 70 the low round of the day. Sami Bouzabia out second again got off to a good start but was again unable to maintain his score dropping to a ten over par 82. This put the pressure on the final two players as Millfield were playing well. Alexander Wilson after another steady round made a fantastic up and down on the 18th to post a one over par 73. Ben Skinner out last for the second time shot a fantastic front nine but hit a rocky patch in the middle of the back nine with three double bogeys in a row. He regrouped quickly and finished with two crucial pars to shoot a four over par 76 and a team score of +3 for the day and +7 for the tournament.
This was good enough to retain the ISGa Home Internationals maintaining our three shot lead over Millfield who finished second ahead of Coleraine in third and Monmouth in fourth.
Rick Valentine, Loretto’s Director of Golf added, "This is the third consecutive victory for us in the ISGA Home Internationals. It was a fantastic achievement by the Loretto team to retain the trophy and for it to remain in Scotland – the home of Golf. We look forward to defending out title next year."