Yarra Yarra has won the Men’sDivision 1 while Metropolitan has taken out the Women’s Division 1 following the 2013 Golf Victoria Pennant finals played at Royal Melbourne Golf Club (West course) yesterday. In the finale to the 114th Golf Victoria Pennant season, Yarra Yarra made it back-to-back Division 1 Men’stitles by defeating Southern four and a half matches to two and a half. Yarra Yarra gained ascendency with strong -performances from its lower order with wins from team captain Ian Susic and father/son duo Peter and Ryan Woodward. While former Victorian State player Lachlan Cain and Jack Besley pulled back two matches for Southern with respective victories over Yarra Yarra No. 4 Andy Roberts and No. 3 James Betts, current Victorian Amateur Champion Taylor Macdonald sealed the result with a 3&2 win over Southern No. 1 Ben Hollis. With the final decided, the last match between the No. 2 players in Yarra s Vaughan McCall and Southern s Alexander McCoy was squared, delivering the winning club s 11th Division 1 title over the history of the competition. History was also being made in the Women’s Division 1 final where Metropolitan prevailed five matches to two over Heidelberg to win the club s first Division 1 Women’s title since 1965, and 11th overall since the competition was first formally played in 1910. After No. 7 Debbie Baulch secured the first team win for the day with a 6&5 victory over Heidelberg s Elizabeth Sinclair, Metropolitan s strong top order sealed the result with wins from Tomi Crewes, Michelle Hui, Victorian Women’s State Team Captain, Jo Charlton and Australia s No. 1 ranked amateur, Su-Hyun Oh. Crewes accounted for 2012 Victorian Girls Team member, Kirsty Hodgkins 2&1 while Hui defeated the experienced Heidelberg No. 3 Janette Borgolotto 4&3. Charlton, who recently led the Victorian Women’s team to victory at the 2013 Australian Interstate Series, defeated former State player Lauren Sinclair 2&1 while Oh was all class in a 9&7 victory against Ingrid Noack. Jane Fletcher and Stephanie Robinson were Heidelberg s only winners on the day with respective victories against Metropolitan No s 5 & 6 in Gill Ednie and Sue Clark. A total of 24 out of the 46 competing clubs were represented in the 2013 Pennant competition across six Men’sdivisions, five Women’s divisions and five Colts divisions. As part of Golf Victoria s ongoing policy of simultaneously staging Men s, Women’s and Colts finals, contests were played at four host venues in Royal Melbourne (West course), Yarra Yarra, Patterson River and Latrobe Golf Clubs. As an added feature of the 2013 finals, clubs with multiple teams in finals were scheduled at the same venue to allow club members to support all competitors. However, of the seven clubs with the chance of taking out multiple flags, only Metropolitan was ultimately successful with Women’s Division 1 and Colts Division 3 victories. The 2013 Men’sPennant finals saw the remaining Divisions won by Cheltenham (Division 2), Long Island (Division 3), Rossdale (Division 4), Patterson River (Division 5) and Churchill Park (Division 6). Winners of Women’s Pennant finals were Huntingdale (Division 2), Spring Valley (Division 3), Medway (Division 4) and Box Hill (Division 5). Commonwealth took out the Division 1 Colts final for the second year in succession by defeating Yarra Yarra three matches to two. The remaining Colts finals were won by Kooringal (Division 2); Metropolitan (Division 3); Rosanna (Division 4) and Goonawarra (Division 5). Interesting Fact: Cheltenham created its own history by winning the Division 2 Men’stitle and reaching Division 1 for the first time. The win capped off a stellar five year stretch that has seen the club progress from Division 6 to 1 in consecutive years. Meanwhile, Long Island s victorious Division 3 Men’steam collectively had over 100 years of membership at the club, highlighting the longstanding links for each of the seven players. Many more stories will come to light in the coming weeks as the victors celebrate the conclusion of Australia s oldest and arguably best club team competition involving almost 800 players over the eight week season.
Author: Golf Victoria