Darren Clarke gave Ireland’s up and coming stars the trip of a lifetime last weekend when he hosted the Darren Clarke Foundation Champions Weekend at La Reserva Club in Spain.

Due to his Champions Tour commitments last year, the 2011 Open champion was unable to host his annual Champions Weekend in 2018 but he made amends last weekend by inviting the 2018 and 2019 boys and girls champions to southern Spain.

Invitations are automatically extended to the annual winners of the Boys and Girls Championships and 23 of Ireland's best underage golfers travelled to Cádiz as guests of the 2016 European Ryder Cup Captain.

The Dungannon man played a full schedule on the PGA Tour Champions in 2019, finishing 42nd in the Charles Schwab Cup standings to ensure he will be play a full schedule of events on the US seniors circuit in 2020

While the weather in the Spain was kind, a strong breeze made conditions very tough. However, the participants were treated to a masterclass from Darren, who talked them through a variety of topics including course management, practice drills, ball flight and short game techniques and showed the young champions why he is still one of the greatest ball-strikers that the country has ever produced

After a fun team event on the Friday won by Kate Lanigan, Mel Deasy, Paul Conroy and Sam Murphy, the competitors got down to the serious business on Saturday afternoon.

The morning was spent working with Darren and culminated in a short game shootout refereed by the host which was won by Dundalk's Josh Mackin, who narrowly edged out Elm Park's Anna Foster

Conditions were tough with lightning-fast greens and a swirling wind making scoring difficult as Galgorm Castle's Joshua Hill (71) and Kirkistown Castle's Beth Coulter (76) led the way and took the first-day prizes.

Day two was not as windy and Darren decided that our young Boy champions were ready for the back tees. The course played its full yardage of 7,400 yards while the Girls played the men's forward tees — a formidable challenge at more than 6,000 yards.

Beth Coulter scored a very impressive 75 with Lahinch's Aine Donegan only one shot back. Amongst the boys, Connemara's Luke O Neill shot an excellent round of even-par 72 on a course that Darren confirmed was set up in the same manner as would typical for a European Tour Event

The 23 participants all agreed it was a weekend to remember and all of them were generous in their thanks for Darren who spent the entire three days with them and answered all of their many questions on all aspects of the game and life on tour.

Thanks also are due to the ILGU and GUI who sent their Junior Convenors to supervise matters with the Darren Clarke Foundation team.

Darren Clarke Foundation, Champions Weekend 2018-19

La Reserva, Sotogrande, 15-17 November 2019

2018 Champions

• Girls — 154 Aine Donegan 78 76

• Boys U16 — 154 Dylan Keating 76 78

• Boys U18 — 151 Luke O’Neill 79 72 151

2019 Champions

• Girls — 151 Beth Coulter 76 75

• Boys U16 — 151 Joshua Hill 71 80

• Boys U18 — 158 Josh Mackin 79 79