Top South Australian sandbelt courses welcome elite senior golfers

05/09/2025

All About the Weather at Grange/Kooyonga Seniors

By John Anderson

The challenge of two of South Australia’s top sand belt courses combined with the elite quality of the fields took a back seat to the apocalyptic weather forecasts for Thursday the 28^th of August and, particularly, Friday the 29^th.

The event is a second level National ranking event so is always well supported and with nearly half the field from interstate including a lot of top players a great event was anticipated.

A handicap limited field of 92 took on Grange West in the afternoon with strong winds and a rain and hail forecast. Ultimately one slight hail delay only affecting part of the course eventuated.

With some work planned for the “West” it gave participants maybe a final opportunity to understand Mike Clayton’s design which features wide fairways offset by the paramount need for getting the correct angle for the approach to the greens.

8:00am shotgun start at Kooyonga on Friday with constant weather warnings including mini-tornados filling the airwaves and advice to stay home as we drove to the club ! One big tree down only and nearly everyone from Grange present ready to go again.

A mixture of (some) sunshine, fast moving showers and the odd very strong wind squalls but the field survived and some prospered and all had something to add to their golf experiences as we headed to the Clubhouse for lunch and the presentation.

Senior Men

3 players broke 80 on day one – Gary Hallam (Bargara GC) lead the way with a superb 74 followed by Bruce Lindner (Kooyonga) (77) and current State champion, Dave Pateyjohns (Willunga) (79).

Some big changes in the Senior Men with a number shooting far better scores despite the, arguably, harder conditions and scores historically being higher at Kooyonga. Mike Lucas (Harvey GC) as best with 75 with 78’s from Tony Nobbs (The Vines) and Peter Bennett (Royal Perth).

These second day rounds from Lucas (156) (81,75); Nobbs (159) (81,78) and Bennett (159) (81,78) saw them assume the top three positions overall.

Tocumwal visitor John Hadland (152) (77, 75) won the Nett one clear of Royal Perth’s Andrew Brown 1(53) (78, 75) and Paul Gregory (the Vines) (154) (78, 76) matched by Hallam (71, 83).

Super Senior Men

Regular visitor, Ian Frost (Lakelands) (80) was a clear leader in the Men’s Super Seniors after the first day. Ian was again best Super Senior at Kooyonga with 82 for a total of 182 clear of Matthew Doughty (Royal Sydney) (168) (85, 83) and Glenelg’s John Keogh third with 170 (87,83).

In the Nett, Steve Francis from Willunga (150) (78 and an excellent 72 at Kooyonga) was 2 strokes better than Billy Jones from Harvey GC in WA and Brian Welsh (Glenelg) 2 strokes further back.

Senior Women

After Grange SAOOM contender Amanda Heapy (The Vines of Reynella) (83) led the women by one stroke from the favourite Gemma Dooley (New South Wales GC) who probably saw the conditions as benign !

Unfortunately Amanda ran into trouble at Kooyonga with Gemma winning comfortably (170) (84,86) ; Colette Nalder(Royal Perth) (182) (90,92) and Amanda (183) (83, 100).

In the Nett, Collette consistent 80, 81 for 161 was just good enough over Glenelg’s Jo Ricourt (77, 85) (162) and Amanda Heapy and Virginia Younger (Cromer) recording 163’s.

For Full Results go to: https://www.golf.org.au/events#/competition/4774102/results

*Men’s Senior – Gross*					*Men’s Super Seniors- Gross*					*Senior Women’s – Gross*
	Total	Grange West	Kooyonga			Total	Grange West	Kooyonga			Total	Grange West	Kooyonga
Michael Lucas	156	81	75	Harvey GC	Ian Frost	162	80	82	Lakelands GC	Gemma Dooley	170	84	86	New South Wales
Tony Nobbs	159	81	78	The Vines	Mathew Doughty	168	85	83	Royal Sydney GC	Colette Nalder	182	90	92	Royal Perth
Peter Bennett	159	81	78	Royal Perth	John Keogh	170	87	83	Glenelg GC	Amanda Heapy	183	83	100	The Vines
Paul Gregory	161	81	80	The Vines	Brian Welsh	171	85	86	Glenelg GC	Ali Gatland	185	89	96	Monash CC
Gary Hallam	161	74	87	Bargara GC	Steve Francis	173	89	84	Willunga GC	Jo Ricourt	186	88	98	Glenelg GC
Andrew Brown	162	82	80	Royal Perth	Michael Richards	173	85	88	Tea Tree Gully GC	Lyn Banks	186	91	95	Scone GC
David Pateyjohns	162	79	83	Willunga	Shane Amor	174	90	84	Grange GC	Rebecca Brown	186	97	89	Yarra Yarra GC
David Alexander	163	80	83	Royal Perth	Billy Jones	175	89	86	Harvey GC	Virginia Younger	187	91	96	Cromer GC
Philip Chapman	163	83	80	Aston Hills	Peter Shaw	175	87	88	Grange GC	Shirley Dean	190	94	96	Sanctuary Cove CC
*Men’s Senior – Nett*					*Men’s Super Seniors – Nett*					*Senior Women’s – Nett*
John Hadland	152	77	75	Tocumwal GC	Steve Francis	150	78	72	Willunga GC	Colette Nalder	161	80	81	Royal Perth
Andrew Brown	153	78	75	Royal Perth GC	Billy Jones	152	78	74	Harvey GC	Jo Ricourt	162	77	85	Glenelg GC
Paul Gregory	154	78	76	The Vines	Brian Welsh	154	77	77	Glenelg GC	Amanda Heapy	163	74	89	The Vines
Gary Hallam	154	71	83	Bargara GC	Shane Amor	155	81	74	Grange GC	Virginia Younger	163	80	83	Cromer GC
Michael Lucas	155	81	74	Harvey GC	Lindsay Elliott	156	76	80	Kooyonga GC	Gemma Dooley	165	82	83	New South Wales
Michael Prindiville	155	83	72	Royal Perth GC	Colin Andy	156	73	83	Future Golf	Lyn Banks	165	81	84	Scone GC
Tony Nobbs	156	80	76	The Vines	John Keogh	157	81	76	Glenelg GC	Rebecca Brown	168	89	79	Yarra Yarra GC
David Pateyjohns	157	77	80	Willunga GC	Peter Shaw	157	79	78	Grange GC	Rosemary Underwood	168	81	87	Blackwood
Bruce Lindner	157	72	85	Kooyonga GC	Peter Chang	158	78	80	Mt Lawley GC	Jane Abbott	169	86	83	Lake Karrinyup CC

All About the Weather at Grange/Kooyonga Seniors

Senior Men

Super Senior Men

Senior Women

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