Worksop's finest golfing export was on hand to dish out the prizes and sign autographs, capping a brilliant day for the youngsters.

The major honours were won by Tapton's Ben Weaver and Kieran O'Brien, who made the 90-mile trip from Filey to win the scratch tournament.

Weaver became the stableford champion with 45 points, and was delighted with his first ever win.

He told the Guardian: "This was my first time in the tournament and I've never won anything before."

"I played quite well today. My ball to green was quite good and my putting was alright too."

"I've never met Lee Westwood before so that was pretty special."

O'Brien meanwhile was glad he finally got round to playing in the competition.

He said: "I heard about it a couple of years ago but never got round to playing in it until today."

"I had a day off work so I decided to come and play."

The Filey golfer shot a 77 and won the scratch gross competition on a better back three from Sherwood Forest's Lloyd Best.

Westwood himself was pleased the weather was so kind to the juniors.

He said: "I was down in Birmingham doing a company day for New York Stock Exchange and it was freezing down there, the wind was a lot stronger than up here, it's a great day for them."

He said he was glad so many players had turned up to compete and explained why it attracted kids.

"It was a brilliant turnout, every year there seems to be more kids and they're getting better and taller."

"I think we've a great prize table and it's really well run."

He also encouraged his fellow professionals to get behind events like this one, saying: "It's great that clubs hold days like these and obviously the local paper gets involved and I think more of the professionals should promote junior golf because they're the future."

"It's very easy for me and it's nice to turn up and see how many kids have turned up and how well they're playing."

Westwood was keen to thank his sponsors, who provided many of the prizes on offer: "Ping have been brilliant. I've been with Ping for getting on 20 years and there's a lot of loyalty between the two of us, so any time I ask for anything like this they're very, very supportive."

Results

Scratch Gross: 1st K. O'Brien (Filey) 77 (BB3), 2nd L. Best (Sherwood Forest) 77, 3rd M. Hadfield (Worksop) 80, 4th Steph Hall (Lindrick) 84-2.

Stableford Nett: 1st B. Weaver (Tapton) 45, 2nd J. Atkinson (Retford) 42, 3rd R. Hampton (Rotherham) 41, 4th Joseph Hodgkinson (Kilton Forest) 38, 5th Charlie O'Brien (Lindrick) 37 (BB9), 6th Adam Richardson (Lindrick) 37 (BB6), 7th Sam Neal (Kilton Forest) 37, 8th Ben Partridge (Newark) 36 (BB9), 9th Ben Hall (Bondhay) 36, 10th Nathan Timms (Retford) 35.

Scratch Nett: 1st R. Croasdale (Serlby Park) 79-7=72 (BB9), 2nd J. Boler (Chesterfield) 78-6=72, 3rd T. Wood (Bondhay) 82-9=73, 4th Ryan Heath (Worksop) 83-9=74.

Stableford Gross: 1st D. Cavell (Retford) 81, 2nd J. Vardy (Tapton) 82, 3rd N. Briggs (Serlby Park) 83, 4th Matthew Wasteney (Bondhay) 86.

Special prize: Alex Hales (Newark).

THE Worksop Guardian would like to thank the organisers, the juniors, Worksop Golf Club, Ping and Lee Westwood.

Full results