GOLF NEWS - Reigning Nedbank Junior Challenge champion Schalk van Ettinger will join fellow South Africans Shaun Viljoen, Jordan Groenewald, and Yieke Ajulu in representing GolfRSA at the prestigious Reply Italian International Under-16 Championship later this month.
The 18th edition of the championship will be staged at Biella Golf Club Le Betulle in Italy from 28-30 August, with the South African quartet set to compete in a world-class field of 140 juniors, including 76 international players and 64 of Italy’s top-ranked juniors.
“Over the years, this championship has become a highly regarded junior event on the international calendar, and this year will be no different,” said GolfRSA CEO Grant Hepburn. “The Reply Italian International Under-16 Championship offers an incredible opportunity for our emerging talents to test themselves against top international competition and gain invaluable experience. We’re delighted to once again send four of our most promising juniors to participate.”
The championship has certainly been a happy hunting ground for South Africa in the past, with multiple top finishes and Haydn Porteous (2008), Martin Vorster (2017) and Amilkar Bhana (2019) all lifting the prestigious Theodore Soldati Trophy.
Fresh off his wire-to-wire triumph at the 2025 Nedbank Junior Challenge, Van Ettinger surged to third in the GolfRSA U17 rankings. The 15-year-old Ruimsig Country Club standout previously claimed the Sun City U13 and U15 Challenge titles, becoming the first player to complete the Sun City trifecta.
Viljoen, a two-time Dimension Data U15 Open champion, kicked off the 2025 season with his third national victory in the Nomads SA U15 Championship. The 15-year-old from St Francis Links currently ranks fifth on the GolfRSA U17 standings.
Groenewald, just 14 years old, enjoyed a breakout win at the Nomads Gowrie Farm U15 Challenge in April. The Kingswood Estate junior heads up the GolfRSA U15 rankings, bolstered by a runner-up finish at the Sun City U15 Challenge and a third-place result at the Nomads SA U15 Championship.
Thirteen-year-old Ajulu, representing Country Club Johannesburg, has risen to fourth in the GolfRSA U15 rankings on the back of a consistent run that included top-20 finishes in all three of his national championship starts this season.
Van Ettinger, Viljoen and Groenewald will also compete in the Nation Cup, a team competition played concurrently with the first two rounds of the individual event.
“This will be the first time all four juniors represent GolfRSA on the international stage,” added Hepburn. “Given their strong performances this season at national, provincial, and club level, we are excited to see how they perform in such a strong field at one of Europe’s premier junior venues.
The team will be managed by South African Golf Association Junior Vice-President Thinus Labuschagne and GolfRSA’s Sean Bradley.
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