Sandy Creek debuts as new venue for South Australian senior golfers

Report by John Anderson

Sandy Creek Golf Club, situated at the gateway to the Barossa Valley, was the host for the latest round of the South Australian Senior Order of Merit.

Sandy Creek had previously held a round of the SA Senior Championship back in 2012 and play Senior Pennant but were a welcome addition to the SA SOOM Calendar.

The course is an excellent test of golf with a number of memorable and challenging holes. The weather was again hot but not quite to the level that saw the previous round at The Vines of Reynella cancelled.

The event was very well organised with great hospitality provided typical of the hard work that the members put into this club and those that played enjoyed the day; appreciated the efforts of the host club and look forward to the event prospering in 2025.

A field of 51 starters was encouraging for a new event with the very hot weather in the forecast leading up to entries closing having some affect.

Senior/Super Senior Women

Some welcome new faces made their SOOM debuts and featured in the women’s winners. Christine Trimmer, a low single figure marker and former pennant player for Glenelg shot 81 to win the Gross from Jill Trenorden (83), a former Kooyonga pennant player and club champion. Perennial contender, Angela Masters (Blackwood) was third with 85.

In the Nett, Stephanie Matthews (Blackwood) had an excellent 70 ahead of Trenorden (74) and Royal Adelaide’s Anne Armfield. Interesting to note that the sand-belt representatives performed well away from their normal comfort zone.

Senior Men

Tough battle off-the-stick with three of the leading contenders all recording 76’s – Paul Gregory (The Vines of Reynella) on the count-back from David Pateyjohns (Willunga) and Mark Bolton (Murray Bridge) the unlucky third.

However, Mark did take the Nett (70) from the consistent Shane Amor (Grange) (72) and 73’s from Daryl Shepherdson (Sandy Creek) and Simon Pritchard (Mt Osmond).

Super Senior Men

No surprise here with the ever-competitive Mike Richards (Tea Tree Gully) shooting a 76 (equalling the “young guns” best score) 4 shots clear of Sandy Creek’s Stephen Brown with another Tea Tree Gully player, Craig Morrison another shot back.

One of our loyal stalwarts who perseveres at all the SA events in Mt Osmond’s Alan Bartram (71) pipped Richards (72) in the Nett with the Grange’s Eric Lane, back to a full season of SOOM golf, third (73) equalled by clubmate Jack Roberts.

 For full scores and details go to: https://www.golf.org.au/orderofmeritinfo/