Western Sydney veteran golfers resumed their interclub competition last Tuesday with Richmond golf club hosting 144 very cold players for their 8am tee off.
For the first time this year the home club took out the prestigious Club Team Event (scores being the sum of the four best stableford scores achieved by their members) with Sue Still, Ian Jordan, Jane Mackie and Carolyn Lozier amassing a combined 136 stableford points to finish narrowly ahead of Wallacia (135 points).
There was a gap before Glenmore (126), Penrith (124), Leonay (122), Dunheved (118), Springwood (116) and Stonecutters (115) followed.
With the season now half over the total points for each club in this competition are becoming important. Only seven points separate the leading three clubs- Glenmore (555), Leonay (554) and Richmond (548). Dunheved (532) and Wallacia (529) may still be within range while Penrith (512), Springwood (472) and Stonecutters (458) would need some good victories to challenge the leaders. With these latter clubs yet to host the Association this is still possible.
As the team event results tend to indicate, Richmond and Wallacia dominated the winner’s list in both the two-ball and individual stableford competitions on the day – taking home four of the six prizes in the 2B events and eight of the twelve individual prizes.
For Wallacia, Stephen Small and Stephen Francis combined for 43 stableford points to lead the Men’s 2BBB competition, two strokes ahead of Rod Tuckwell and Ian Jordan (Richmond, 41) who edged out the Glenmore pair of Gary McSullea and Tim Dawes on a countback.
Richmond turned the tables in the Women’s 2BBB with Sue Still and Carmen Salkeld (43 points) just ahead of Noel Hoppe and Christine Hoppe (Wallacia, 42). Julie Berg and Margaret Howarth filled third spot for Penrith with 39 points.
The results in the individual competitions was largely similar.
The Men’s A Grade was won by Ian Jordan of Richmond with 35 points, ahead of club mate Rod Tuckwell with 33. Wallacia filled third place through Stephen Small with 32 on a countback.
Wallacia proved dominant in the Men’s B Grade, with Noel Hoppe (36 points) and Paul Williams (35) in the top two placings ahead of Peter Aronay from Glenmore with 4 points.
Hans Schneider with 33 points and Mervyn Damrow interrupted the usual flow by leading the field in the Men’s C grade for Leonay, relegating Richmond to third through Adrian Jurd who finished with 29 points.
Normalcy was returned in the Women’s individual competition where Sue Still (Richmond 36 points) was followed by Julie Berg (Penrith, 35) and then Richmond again in Jane Mackie (33 points). Just a note – Julie was a long time member of Wallacia before defecting.
As with the team competition, with the season now half completed the scoring in the Men’s and Women’s Player of the Year competitions is heating up. In these, each player’s score is the total of their best three stableford scores – but the score obtained on their hone course cannot be included (so the good scores the Richmond players achieved on Tuesday cannot be included).
After the Richmond game the leading players in the Women’s Player of the Year are Carmen Salkeld (Richmond, 103), Julie Berg (Penrith, 97), Tarana Khann (Springwood, 88), Suzanne Still (Richmond, 87), Jane Mackie (Richmond,83) and Christine Hoppe (Wallacia,81).
With many more men than women contesting each round it is probably understandable that the men’s Player of the Year is more hotly contested.
After four rounds the joint leaders are Stephen Francis (Wallacia, 100) and Max Loftus (Richmond, 100). Then comes Peter Cromer (Wallacia, 98), Joseph Kent (Leonay, 96), John Mathews (Glenmore, 96), Julian Cuff (Wallacia, 94), Philip Rashley (Penrith, 94), Noel Hoppe (Wallacia, 93), Ian Jordan (Richmond, 93). Vince Preca (Leonay, 93), Michael Harrison (Richmond, 92), Graham Anderson (Wallacia, 91), Martin Berg (Wallacia, 91) and Glenn Brown (Dunheved, 91).
STORY: NOEL HOPPE | WSVGA