Six of the seven Myanmar golfers who played at the World Junior Golf Championships in Jakarta, Indonesia.

GOLFER Nay Bala Win Myint won the title of World Junior Golf Championship at the tournament, which was held in the Damai Indah Golf Course in Jakarta, Indonesia, from June 3 to 6.

The 17-year-old grabbed the Best Gross Overall trophy by compiling a score of 290 points, leading 143 participants from 23 countries including the US, the Netherlands, England, Australia and New Zealand.

“I also took place in the 15-17 age category but the rules state that you can only take home one title, so I chose the higher category,” he said.

Nay Bala Win Myint also took part in the tournament last year but had to be satisfied with second place. He said that last year’s loss pushed him to do better this year.

“I made some mistakes on the second day of last year’s tournament, which cost me victory.

“But this year I’m more experienced and have more maturity and patience compared with last year, which helped me out at several key moments during the championship,” he told The Myanmar Times.

And while the faces at the tournament were more or less the same as last year, Nay Bala Win Myint said there were some important changes for the championship this time around.

“Although the competitors I was up against were the same, this year the course itself had a lot more obstacles on it,” he said, adding that he practiced for nearly two months leading up to the event.

However, Cyclone Nargis tossed up its own sandtrap, of sorts, meaning the young golfer had to travel to Mandalay and Pyin Oo Lwin to train.

His next competitive event will be played in Singapore, in August.

Myanmar was represented by seven golfers at the World Junior Golf Championship, including Nay Bala Win Myint.

Another representative was 12-year-old Yin May Myo, who won fourth place in the 11-12 age group, bettering the sixth place she won a year earlier.

“The competition was world class and the golfers that I faced were very good and experienced too,” she said.

In her event Yin May Myo scored 233 points and finished behind golfers from Thailand, Indonesia and South Korea.