Three title triumphs mark rapid rise of Turnhouse teenager Georgie Jackson
Scottish Area Team triumph at Largs capped brilliant breakthrough season for 19-year-old
Georgie Jackson has gone from a 19-handicapper when he took up golf again to a double Scottish Order of Merit winner this year and a national champion with Lothians as well.
The 19-year-old Turnhouse member landed the biggest win of his career in the East of Scotland Open at Lundin Golf Club in Fife in the summer.
He recently added the South East District Open title at Longniddry before helping Lothians win the Scottish Area Team Championship for a record 16th time at Largs last weekend.
“Yeah, it’s been a good season,” admitted Jackson, who started working with swing coach David Burns last December and, helped enormously by him, is now playing off plus 4.5.
“Earlier in the season, I had a few decent finishes, but I was looking to try and start my WAGR (World Amateur Golf Ranking) from winning one of these events. Once I won the East of Scotland Open, my golf stayed at a decent level and I was delighted to get another win in the South East District Open.
“I definitely got a massive confidence boost from winning the East of Scotland Open while I also now feel a lot more relaxed in these events. I now know I can compete at this level.”
Jackson’s younger brother, 18-year-old Eddie, was the family’s star golfer and might even still feel he can claim that tag, though Georgie has certainly enjoyed a meteoric rise this season.
“I was a member at Turnhouse since I was eight or nine before I stopped playing for a while,” he added. “I played football for ages then, at the end of 2022, we got a half day when The Queen died and I was like ‘you know what, I’m going to go out for a game of golf’.
“Eddie is a good player and I went out and played with him and some of the other Turnhouse boys and really enjoyed it. I must have been a 19-handicapper at the time.
“I then quit football - when I was 15 or 16, I was playing at under-20 level for Hutchie and I also played at under-20s’ level for Penicuik as a midfielder - and started to take golf a bit more seriously and, yeah, I’ve just kept playing golf since then.”
Jackson is on the golf programme at the University of Stirling, where Dean Robertson, who captained GB&I to victory in the Walker Cup last weekend, is the head of golf.
“I’m back at Stirling next week for my second year,” said Jackson. “It has helped me massively. I was on the second team in my first year and the standard is unbelievable. All the boys - the likes of George Cannon, Alexander Farner, Ross Laird and James Wood - are great craic as well.
“We push each other on and I definitely think that has helped me a lot. It is a really good environment. As for Dean, he just loves golf himself - you can tell that. It’s great to be around someone like him.
“Turnhouse is also a great environment to be in. They are very supportive. They have a team news chat, which loads of the members have joined. There’s a great group of lads who are all similar ages and we go out and play and practice a lot together.”
Lothians beat Renfrewshire in the final to be crowned as Scottish champions again last Sunday. “Yeah, it was a nice way to finish my summer season and now the uni season is just starting, which is great,” said Jackson.