Golf Vic Vol 60 No 2 2019

Rupert Toomey is working hard to achieve his goals. Rupert Toomey is ambitious. He wants to be off scratch by the end of the year and he is doing three hours’ extra schooling on Saturdays because he wants to study at Stamford. He does athletics and swimming for fitness and loves skiing and scooter riding. Oh, and he has a small job at the local tennis club. Rupert is 11. He played in the club championships at Huntingdale Golf Club last year and, after stroke scores of 79 and 81, was able to navigate a playoff to qualify for the top eight. In the matchplay, he met number-one seed Levi Sclater but lost on the 13th or 14th. He can’t quite remember. He is also a member of Huntingdale’s Colts pennant team, a youthful addition to the 16-plus-year-olds. Rupert has a British father, Martin, who plays social golf, and a Chinese mum, Lucy, who is having lessons. Younger brother Harry, 9, is also a promising player. The family moved to Melbourne from China when Rupert was three. “He started tagging along with me to a driving range when he was five,” Martin says. Rupert got his first full set of clubs for his ninth birthday and within four years was playing competitively and had a handicap. That is now down to 2.5 and he’s aiming for scratch by the end of the year. Rupert’s coach Jonathan Porter, head coach at SandringhamGolf Academy and soon to settle in as head coach at the Melbourne Golf Academy, candidly says of Rupert: “The kid is amazing. “Rupert came to me when he was nine and playing off 17. “He had a lot of natural ability, but his technique needed a fair bit of work and we had to go back to basics. “His technique is now really, really good and he has a good platform to build on. “He just comes and practises of his own accord. He’s got that ability to grind it out by himself, which all successful sportspeople are able to do. That’s the biggest thing. “It’s unusual for an 11-year-old not to mind practising by himself. He just loves practising and challenging himself.” Between lessons and practice and school and his extra classes on Saturday afternoons and his job and his Saturday morning rounds at Huntingdale and Sunday pennant, Rupert focusses on tournaments that will have an impact on his ranking – and watching golf on the television. Porter says: “I get him to play only the tournaments he wants to play. I’ve told him it’s important to get a good grounding at your own club. And playing at a course like Huntingdale, which is tight, is very beneficial for his golf.” Rupert was the youngest of about 100 players in the boys’ event at the Victorian Junior Masters at Spring Valley Golf Club in January. He was in contention to win the under-14 section after shooting 79 and 76, before a final round 80 put him in a very creditable third place. His lowest round was a two-over 74 to easily win the under-12s at the 2018 Vic Junior Masters at Waverley. So what does Rupert find difficult? “Sometimes when I’m not playing good, I get mentally frustrated,” Rupert says. “But when I’m playing well, I keep calm and keep on playing well. When I’m playing bad, I need to settle down a little. My mum helps me with that. She always chats with me and says, ‘Rupert, you need to calm down. You need to do this to play better and you need to calm down’.” With his goals for the year firmly sorted and his progress on a steep upward trajectory, for Rupert Toomey it’s a matter of watch this space. In our regular column highlighting some of the brightest young talent in Victorian golf, JANELLE WARD profiles Star On The Rise, Rupert Toomey. ON THE RISE star on the rise by Janelle Ward Golf Victoria 23