Commonwealth has won Men’s Division 1 while Metropolitan has taken out the Women’s Division 1 following the 2014 Pennant finals played at the Kingston Heath Golf Club on Sunday 18 May.
On a fine but overcast Autumn day with a gusty northerly breeze, Commonwealth won its first title since 2009 by defeating Metropolitan four and a half matches to two and a half.
In the finale to the 115th Golf Victoria Pennant season, Commonwealth gained the early ascendency with a sudden death win from No. 7 Tom Couling on the 19th over Metropolitan’s Doug Francis.
Metropolitan then rested back the advantage with victories from No.6 Sean Smith and No.5 Matt Roberson over respective Commonwealth opponents Garry Sluce and Matt Hinkley before current Victorian Amateur Champion Zach Murray levelled proceedings with an eight and six win over Metro No. 3 Blake Collyer.
In a close final, there was always going to be a pivotal match and it came in the No. 4 clash between Victorian Junior Boys representative, Frazer Droop and Metropolitan’s Ted Donoghue. Droop birdied the long par four 17th to gain a one hole advantage and a par on the 18th was enough to secure a vital win.
Commonwealth No. 2, Lucas Herbert then sealed the result with a two and one victory over Lukas Michel. With the final decided, the final match between the No. 1 players in Australian Amateur Runner-Up, Todd Sinnott from Metropolitan and Commonwealth’s Geoff Drakeford was squared to provide the eventual margin and deliver the winning club’s 12th Division 1 title over the duration of the competition.
History was also being made in the Women’s Division 1 final where Metropolitan went back-to-back with a six match to one victory over Victoria to win the club’s 12th Division 1 Women’s title since the competition was first formally played in 1910.
No. 7 Tomi Crewes secured the first team win for the day with a four and three victory over Victoria’s Anna Gavardinas while Metropolitan No. 6 Gillian Ednie capped off an undefeated season with a five and four win against Lillie Callow.
A two-up victory by Siobhan Anderson against Victoria’s No. 5 Evelyn Clark set the scene for Metropolitan’s strong top order to seal the result with wins from Michelle Hui, Victorian Women’s State Team Captain, Jo Charlton and Australia’s No. 2 ranked amateur in Su-Hyun Oh.
Hui accounted for Simone Thompson four and two while Charlton defeated Victorian Junior Girls State player Olivia Kline two and one while Oh was all class in a four and three victory against talented 2014 Australian Junior Girls Champion, Kono Matsumoto.
Sue Wooster was Victoria’s only winner on the day with a four and three victory against Metropolitan No’s 3 Grace Daniell.
A total of 24 out of the 46 competing clubs were represented in the 2014 GV Pennant finals across six Men’s divisions, five Women’s divisions and six 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 Kingston Heath, Woodlands, Green Acres and Rosanna Golf Clubs.
The 2014 finals again saw clubs with multiple teams in finals scheduled at the same venue to allow club members to support all competitors. Of the ten clubs with the chance of taking out multiple flags, only Commonwealth and Gisborne were ultimately successful with dual victories.
The 2014 Men’s Pennant Finals saw the remaining Divisions won by Sanctuary Lakes (Division 2); Rosanna (Div 3); Gisborne (Div 4); Eastwood (Div 5) and Settlers Run (Div 6). Winners of Women’s Pennant Finals were Long Island (Division 2); Sunshine (Division 3); Rossdale (Division 4) and Gisborne (Division 5).
Commonwealth took out the Division 1 Colts Final for the third year in succession by defeating Victoria four matches to one. The remaining Colts finals were won by Southern (Division 2); Cranbourne (Division 3); Riversdale (Division 4); Patterson River (Division 5) and Chirnside Park (Division 6).
Every winning team will have stories to tell in the coming weeks as the victors celebrate the conclusion of Australia’s oldest and arguably best club team competition involving close to 800 players over the eight week season.
Results
Click here>… for results of all 2014 Men’s Pennant Finals;
Click here>… for results of all 2014 Women’s Pennant Finals;
Click here>… for results of all 2014 Colts Pennant Finals.
Photos of Division Winners
Click here>… for Photos of all 2014 Men’s Divisional Winners:
Click here>… for Photos of all 2014 Women’s Divisional Winners:
Click here>… for Photos of all 2014 Colts Divisional Winners: