Australia day bought out another good field of 68 players. It was great to see Allan Schache back out on the course and able to play a full 18 holes after a 3 month layoff with health issues.

The best score of the day (38 points) was shared by Tom Williamson who won A Grade and Ian Nunn to win C grade. B Grade was won by Grant McRitchie with 37 points on count back.

Winners

• A Grade (0-14)   Tom Williamson (10)  38 pts
• B Grade (15-20)  Grant McRitchie (15)  37 pts (on count back)
• C Grade (21 -36)  Ian Nunn (23)  38 pts

NTP’s

• 4^th:  Bryan Sword 3.3m
• 7^th:  Craig Hams 3.0m
• 14^th:  Peter Stivic 0.6m
• 16th :  Barry Attwood 3.6m

DTL Balls

• Craig Hams 37
• Geoff McDonald 37
• Glenn Marsham 71
• Bruce Hutton 37
• Neale Gillin  37
• Keith Godridge 37
• Peter Ormond  36
• Andrew Westaway 36
• Bill Bittleman 35
• Peter Jaspers 35
• Peter Stivic  35
• Chris Leaver  35
• Bruce Gibson  34
• Frank Gill 34
• Peter Walsh 34
• Barry Attwood 34
• John Eabry 34 (on count back from 2 others)

A great day for golfing saw many players produce very good scores.  Russell Williams, spurred on by his wife’s big win at the weekend, produce his best to shoot 72 off the stick to post an excellent 41 points to win A grade. Henry Sedelies also posted an impressive 40 points to win C Grade, while Keith Finney produced his best form for a while with 39 points, winning B Grade.

Full results as below:

70 Players
Winners
• A Grade (0-16): Russell Williams (7) 41 pts.
• B Grade (17-23): Keith Finney (20) 39 pts
• C Grade (24-36): Henry Sedelies (27) 40 pts

NTP’s
• 4th. Bruce Hutton 1.04m
• 7th –
• 14th Ian Nunn 67 cm
• 16th Leroy Sharrock 1.36 m
D.L.Balls
• Bruce Hutton 38
• Neale Gillin 38
• Terry Chipman 38
• John Eabry 38
• Frank Gill 38
• Chris Leaver 37
• Mike Street 37
• Frank Smedley 37
• Ian Nunn 36
• Will Norden 36
• Fred Debono 36
• Ian Watson 36
• Neil Mackenzie 36
• Darren Read 35
• Mick Oliver 35
• Sharon Bridgman 34
• Peter Horman 34 on count back from 2 others

In near-perfect conditions, several players posted good scores, none better than the 43 points Bert Borg shot to comfortably win B Grade.  Craig Hams, fresh from a few months up north, played very well to post 39 points and win A Grade.

59 Players

Winners

• A Grade (0-17)   Craig Hams (15) 39 pts.
• B Grade (18-23)  Bert Borg (22)  43 pts
• C Grade (24 -36)  Peter Horman (31)  37 pts

NTP’s

• 4^th:  Travis Tatlow 4.9m
• 7^th:  Bob Smith 10.6m
• 14^th:  Keith Finney 2.43m
• 16th :  Keith Finney 3.12m

DTL Balls

• Bruce Hutton 38
• Keith Finney 38
• Joe Lowell 37
• Grant McRitchie 37
• Peter Jaspers 37
• Allan Edney 37
• John Payne  36
• Geoff McDonald 35
• John Eabry 35
• Mike Street 35
• Brian Fennessy 35
• Bob Smith 35
• Peter Hartigan 34
• Chris Leaver 34
• Andy Bassett 34
• Phil Tucker 34

Back in August 2015, following an SGDGA review of the pennant competition format, the Club entered teams in all four divisions for the 2016 season based upon the understanding that the Pennant competition format would most likely be changed for the upcoming season, and that we had sufficient low handicap golfers. However this was found not to be the case, and the pennant draw for 2016 was sent to Clubs in October with no changes to the format – Divisions 1 and 2  scratch play, Divisions 3 and 4 handicap play as previous seasons.

At it’s last Meeting held in November, the Men’s Committee unanimously agreed that we should attempt to withdraw our Division 1 team from the upcoming 2016 SGDGA Pennant season. This decision was based upon the lack of low handicap players within the Club willing to play pennant for us, and the given this, the likelyhood that any Division 1 team we were able to field would be once again be hoplessly uncompetitive, leading to low morale and enjoyment of pennant by players who sacrificied themselves to allow us to field a Div 1 team.  Our withdrawal from Div 1 would also prevent the situation of the stronger teams dropping players to Div 2 when they played against us in Div 1. This did nothing for the integrity of the whole competition.

To this end, in mid December I wrote to the SDGDA requesting that we be allowed to withdraw our Div 1 team. The SDGDA Executive have met this week and granted permission for us to do so. We will still be fielding teams in Division 2 (Scratch competition) and Divisions 3 and 4 (both handicap competitions) this season, and thus will still give those of you who want to play pennant a game in either a scratch Division or a handicap Division. Expressions of interest for playing pennant for us this year will be called for shortly. The season commences on Sunday 20th March.

Following the resignation due to work and other committments of our encumbent Pennant Coordinator Dan Poynton, we will also require somebody to take over that role for the 2016 season. Should you be interested in the position, I would very much like to hear from you. I would also like to take this opportunity to express my thanks, and those of my Committee, to Dan for the hard work and enthusiasm he bought to the position.

Finally, the SGDGA have also flagged the possibility of a change to the pennant format from 2017 onwards. They have proposed a new format comprising 2 scratch and 2 handicap divisions as is current, but with Clubs only being allowed to field one team in the scratch divisions. A promotion and relegation system would operate between Div 1 and 2 at the completion of the season.

Each Club is being invited to provide feedback on the proposal at the upcoming SDGDA AGM to be held on Feb 3rd. The proposed format will be displayed on the noticeboard in the clubhouse by Saturday, and you are welcome to provide your thoughts on the proposed format to me in person or by email at peter.waters1@bigpond.com

Peter Waters

Men’s Captain