Kildare’s Ella Kenny wins fourth World Championship golf title
The Athgarvan golfer finished top of the pile in the British Junior Golf World Championships at Villa Padierna, Los Flamingos Course in Marbella earlier this year
Kildare’s Ella Kenny lifted her fourth World Championship golf title when she came out on top at the 2026 British Junior Golf World Championships. The Athgarvan golfer has previous success at Villa Padierna, Los Flamingos Course in Marbella, winning there in 2024, and once again took to the warm climate and fast course like a duck to water.
Despite a flying start with an eagle on the first hole of the competition, Ella finished the first day six off the lead after some bunker trouble that resulted in double bogeys. However, it was round one of three and the Kildare player knew it was still all to play for.
Headed into the second round, Ella was positive she could turn around the deficit and ran through the front nine -1 and was slowly getting back into things. After some great golf on the back nine, she had clawed her way back to a three shot deficit and, more importantly, Ella was now in the top three and amongst the final group for the last day. Getting into the final group was an enormous boost for the previous champion who overturned an eight shot deficit on the final day to win this competition in 2024.
Ella rattled off three birdies in the first six holes in round three and was now one shot behind and playing some solid golf on the tough Marbella course. Both Ella and the current leader went out of bounds on the ninth, but the Kildare player recovered best with an excellent shot to leave the ball a foot from the pin from her 115-yard drop. The excellent iron shot and cool finish which followed put Ella ahead by a single shot headed onto the 10th hole.
The lead of the British Junior Golf World Championship was something of a hot potato on the back nine between the top three players. After drama throughout the holes that followed, it was between Ella and one other headed onto the 18th. A Par 4 with hazards galore; water and a ditch on the right and more water down the left.
Ella hit a smooth 5-wood down leaving 140 yards to the pin, over bunkers and tricky terrain to now a very busy green of spectators.
After her nearest competitor had made it to the green with a long putt to go, Ella walked up with her 8 iron, 140 yards, and left it 12 feet from the flag on the top shelf.
Ella’s competition holed out for bogey and the young Kildare golfer finished her round with a par to win a fourth World Championship title with a stellar final round of -1.
Since returning home Ella has won the Irish Kids Tour Leinster title hitting an incredible score of -4 at Headfort to win by 11 shots in the under 13’s, as well as winning a US kids competition in Northern Ireland hitting -2. Her personal goal for this year is to try to get through all of her competitions in Ireland par or better, and so far down she’s on track.
Ella extends a big thank you to the Royal Curragh Golf Club, The KClub, The Heritage and Palmerstown where the driving range keeps practice going during winter, as well as her Dad and her ‘fantastic coach’ Shane. You can follow more of Ella’s journey on Instagram @ellakennygolf.