WHERE LEGENDS BEGIN: THE BONVILLE CHAMPIONS TROPHY AND JACK NEWTON’S ENDURING LEGACY

Tucked away at the foot of the Great Dividing Range, the rolling hills and lush rainforest of Coffs Harbour, set the backdrop for ‘Australia’s Augusta’, Bonville Golf Resort. more than just one of Australia’s most picturesque courses, Bonville is hallowed ground for the country’s emerging golf stars. Since 2013, the Bonville Champions Trophy has grown to become a rite of passage for the nation’s top junior talent, a tournament that has morphed beyond competition into something far more meaningful: a legacy.

That legacy belongs to the late, great Jack Newton, whose passion for nurturing junior golf in Australia laid the foundation for the Jack Newton Junior Golf (JNJG) Foundation. After a promising professional career was tragically cut short by a near-fatal plane accident in 1983, Newton dedicated his life to giving back to the game he loved and to the young people who would carry it forward.

Through his foundation, Newton created opportunities for junior golfers across New South Wales to compete, grow, and dream big. And nowhere is that dream more visible than at Bonville, where the best of the best, regional open winners from across the state gather each year to compete for the Bonville Champions Trophy. General Manager at Jack Newton Junior Golf, Dale Hughes says “JNJG and Bonville have enjoyed a wonderful relationship through the Bonville Champions Trophy for more than a decade. Qualifying for Bonville is a highlight for every single player, and something they work so hard to achieve throughout the year.”

For many, it’s their first taste of elite competition and for a select few, it’s the first step toward greatness.

Take Stephanie Kyriacou, whose name now echoes through the world of professional women’s golf. In 2020, Kyriacou stunned the stacked field of WPGA and Ladies European Tour professionals, and the wider golf community when she won the Ladies European Tour event, Australian Women’s Classic Bonville as an amateur, becoming the first to do so. The fairways that helped shape her junior years became the stage for her breakout moment having competed in the Champions Trophy in both 2015 and 2016. In 2020, Kyriacou earned herself rookie of the year on the Ladies European Tour before joining the LPGA tour in 2022. She made 13 cuts from 15 starts in 2025 and continues to be an inspiration for emerging Australian junior female golfers. Kyriacou has firmly established herself as one of Australia’s finest young exports.

She’s not alone. Grace Kim, who also honed her game under the JNJG banner and competed for the Bonville Champions Trophy from 2014 – 2016, captured gold for Australia at the Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires in 2018 before transitioning to the professional ranks. In 2022, she broke through with a win on the Epson Tour in Hawaii in her third start as a tour rookie and secured her LPGA Tour card. Kim became just the fifth Australian woman to win a major championship, when she won the Amundi Evian Championship 2025. Kim joins Jan Stephenson, Karrie Webb, Hannah Green and Minjee Lee as major champions. Kim seems a rising star with the poise of a seasoned veteran.

 Belinda Ji, the 2016 Bonville Champions Trophy winner, has quietly built an impressive amateur career. After her Champions Trophy success she placed 1st at the Adidas 6s Tour World Final in 2022 & 2023, then captained the winning NSW Team at Australian Interstate Series 2023. Ji returned to Bonville to compete at the Australian Women’s Classic Bonville as an amateur and in 2025, turned pro. Her time at Bonville marked the beginning of a journey still unfolding and she’s one watched closely by those who remember her poise and power as a junior.

And then there’s Harrison Crowe, whose fearless swagger has earned him fans and headlines alike. After battling it out at Bonville in his junior days, competing for the Champions Trophy from 2015 – 2017, Crowe rose to prominence by winning both the NSW Amateur and the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship, the latter granting him a dream ticket to compete at The US Masters in 2023. Standing at Augusta, he carried with him not just his clubs, but the quiet legacy of Jack Newton some 43 years after Jack took to the tee at Augusta.

To the Bonville Champions Trophy, GM Dale Hughes adds “Every year when we return, we look at the photos on the wall of all the kids who have played and won here, and reflect on what they’ve gone on to achieve in their careers. It always brings back great memories.”

As another edition of the Bonville Champions Trophy looms, the course awaits: serene, challenging, beautiful and timeless. For those juniors set to walk its fairways, they do so with big dreams and in the footprints of those who came before, stepping into a story that began with Jack Newton’s vision, and continues his indelible legacy.

Belinda Ji, the 2016 Bonville Champions Trophy winner, has quietly built an impressive amateur career. After her Champions Trophy success she placed 1st at the Adidas 6s Tour World Final in 2022 & 2023, then captained the winning NSW Team at Australian Interstate Series 2023. Ji returned to Bonville to compete at the Australian Women’s Classic Bonville as an amateur and in 2025, turned pro. Her time at Bonville marked the beginning of a journey still unfolding and she’s one watched closely by those who remember her poise and power as a junior.

And then there’s Harrison Crowe, whose fearless swagger has earned him fans and headlines alike. After battling it out at Bonville in his junior days, competing for the Champions Trophy from 2015 – 2017, Crowe rose to prominence by winning both the NSW Amateur and the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship, the latter granting him a dream ticket to compete at The US Masters in 2023. Standing at Augusta, he carried with him not just his clubs, but the quiet legacy of Jack Newton some 43 years after Jack took to the tee at Augusta.

To the Bonville Champions Trophy, GM Dale Hughes adds “Every year when we return, we look at the photos on the wall of all the kids who have played and won here, and reflect on what they’ve gone on to achieve in their careers. It always brings back great memories.”

As another edition of the Bonville Champions Trophy looms, the course awaits: serene, challenging, beautiful and timeless. For those juniors set to walk its fairways, they do so with big dreams and in the footprints of those who came before, stepping into a story that began with Jack Newton’s vision, and continues his indelible legacy.