Cooper Moore has been selected to represent New Zealand at the Junior Golf World Cup in Japan, on the back of winning the Senior Men's Club Championship at Waitikiri for the third year in a row.

The Year 10 student will travel to Japan in June with the NZ U19 team, which consists of four boys and three girls. New Zealand has not sent a team to the competition in five years. 

Golf New Zealand talent development officer Liz McKinnon said the team will face some of the best young players from around the world. “Chukyo Golf Club is a challenging course and will provide a great opportunity for the players to further develop their preparation and performance skills.”

The selection follows Moore's success at the Waitikiri Senior Men's Club Championship. The club championship was played over two qualifying rounds before the top 16 players continued into knock-out play. Cooper shot a 4 under par 67 in his first qualifying round and followed it up with a course record-equalling 7 under par 64 in the second qualifying round to be the number one seed. He won the next rounds comfortably before being pushed hard in the semi-final.

The final was then played over 36 holes. Cooper's opponent was Canterbury Masters number 1 ranked player Woo Bong Kim. Cooper played very consistent golf and eventually won the match on the 32nd hole.

Dan McCormick, a St Bede’s College old boy (1966-1970), was also on the podium at Waitikiri, taking out the junior competition. He said Cooper is an amazing talent and could be the “real deal” on the world golf scene in a few years’ time.

Cooper has certainly been in good form over the past month, finishing ninth at the Australian Junior Amateur Championships, first at the South Island U16 Championship, and first at the Canterbury U16 Order of Merit Championship.

Over the next month he will be travelling to Palmerston North to play in the Manawatu Men's Open, and then working closely with his local coach Rodney Yee and New Zealand Coach Jay Carter to fine tune his swing and game.