Over the weekend the 22nd and 23rd of October the first two rounds of the Men’s Club Championships were decided with a perfect day on Saturday and miserable conditions on Sunday during which the greens became flooded leading to a delay in play for around 1 hour.
CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP
The Pascoe Cup winner and defending Champion, Tristan Geerlings, was unable to defend his title due to a personal commitment. Callum White, who qualified no 2, sustained an injury during the week and unfortunately was unable to play. This handed Aidan Cooper a spot in the semi- finals next Saturday.
Last year’s Runner-up Ben Cullinan fought off a tenacious Dave Southam to progress to the semi-finals where he will be pitted against former President/Dudley Champion Timothy Tan who was just good enough to defeat Anthony Joseph. Unfortunately, Anthony after winning the 16th, hit his drive out of bounds on the 17th which gave Tim a 3/1 win.
Ben O’Callaghan and Ajay Dhadli had an interesting tussle in the last quarter final
So, the Club Championship semi-finalists were decided and will do battle next Saturday morning.
CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP SEMI-FINALS – SATURDAY 29TH OCTOBER
8.00am (1) Ben Cullinan vs (5) Timothy Tan
8.07am (7) Aidan Cooper vs (6) Ben O’Callaghan
MINOR CHAMPIONSHIP
As Dave Southam is unavailable next week and with Callum White no longer in the championships, Anthony Joseph and Ajay Dhadli have qualified for the final of the Minor Championship on Sunday 30th October.
MINOR CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL – 18 HOLES – SUNDAY 30TH OCTOBER
12.29pm (4) Anthony Joseph vs (3) Ajay Dhadli
“A” GRADE CHAMPIONSHIP
The first round of the “A” Grade was played on Saturday morning. Due to the lack of available players the top 4 seeds progressed through to the quarter finals.
On Saturday the 2020 and defending champion Grant Evans started his campaign for a third consecutive “A” Grade Championship with a convincing win over Shane Maloney – 7/6.
Club Captain Stewart Wharton was seemingly in a winning position after 14 holes but saw his 1 up lead go up in smoke with his opponent Reegan Cake winning the next three holes to cruise to a well-deserved victory – 2/1.
The match of the day was between Division 5 Pennant Captain Scott van Heurck and his teammate Gus Elliot. In a seesawing affair, ultimately Gus overcame his Captain 2/1.
To remain in contention for his third win, Grant then faced a tough assignment on Sunday against the number 4 seed, Steve Noske and after an even contest Steve ran out the winner 2/1.
Number 1 qualifier Dylan Morgan was up against Reegan Cake and they were all square playing the 17th hole. Dylan’s tee shot was up against the OOB Fence on the southern side of the house and as it was unplayable, he took relief under penalty of one stroke. Reegan won the hole and he maintained his 1 up lead after the final hole.
The 2021 “B” Grade Champion Wilfred Ong elevated to “A” Grade after a good season was accounted for by the ever reliable and steady Gary Hing – 2/1.
Another two division 5 pennant player were pitted against one another in the final quarter final with Gus Elliot accounting for John Samuels 4/3. It has to be said that whilst Gus played well John’s putter did not behave!!
“A” GRADE CHAMPIONSHIP SEMI-FINALS – SATURDAY 29TH OCTOBER
8.28am (8) Reegan Cake (10 H’cap) vs (4) Steve Noske (8 H’cap)
8.35am (7) Gary Hing (9 H’Cap) vs (6) Gus Elliot (9 H’Cap)
“B” GRADE CHAMPIONSHIP
After a convincing win on Saturday against Ron Edenburg, the number one qualifier John Sheridan came up against Jeff Hamdorf who had defeated Tony Cowan in the first Round by one hole. The highlight of John and Jeff’s round was the 15th hole and you can ask them for an account!!! Ultimately John prevailed 2 up.
Bruce Palmer and Brian Stuart also had easy wins in round one over Jeff Lane and Timothy Bryant respectively and played in the quarter finals. This was the closest match of the weekend and the only one to go into “extra time”. Brian finally overcame his opponent at the 19th.
James Bai and Ray Badnall also had goodwins in round one over Ron Parkin and Ako Futaesaku and in their quarter final match James prove too strong running out a 4/2 victor. Ray’s out of bounds on the 15th was untimely.
Up and coming Junior Luke Bai and Tim Song progressed through to the Quarters with wins over Greg Parker and Ken Hall. Tim jumped out to an early lead against James and was never headed winning 4/3
“B” GRADE CHAMPIONSHIP SEMI-FINALS – SATURDAY 29TH OCTOBER
8.42 am (1) John Sheridan (18 H’Cap) vs (12) Brian Stuart (15 H’Cap)
8.49am (2) James Bai (16 H’Cap) vs (6) Tim Song (17 H’Cap)
“C” GRADE CHAMPIONSHIP
The quarter finals were held on Sunday and unfortunately evergreen John Clarkson missed his tee time and as a result the CG Dudley winner Zack Nielsen progressed to the semi-finals. Angus Johnson was also handed a walkover after the withdrawal of Chris Glynn.
Craig Marshall could not overcome the task of giving the “wily” president Byan Gardiner 5 shots and was defeated at the final hole.
On the other hand, first time Championshipplayer Dave Bennett defeated an in form Gerhard Saueracker by a large margin to progress to the semi-finals.
“C” GRADE CHAMPIONSHIP SEMI-FINALS – SATURDAY 29TH OCTOBER
8.56am (1) Zach Nielsen (22 H’cap) vs (4) Bryan Gardiner (25 H’cap).
9.03am (7) Angus Johnson (31 H’Cap) vs (3) Dave Bennett (21 H’Cap)
THE FINALS
In a big weekend of golf the finalists for the men will be decided on Saturday 29th October and the Club Championship Finals for both men and women will be held on Sunday 30th October and we hope that all members will come up and support the finalists, both Men and Women.
GOOD LUCK TO ALL SEMI-FINALISTS
From – Greg Fitzhardinge