The 2016 Golf Victoria Men’s, Women’s and Colts Pennant Finals will be played on Sunday 22 May across four of Victoria’s leading courses. In total, 24 of the 48 competing clubs will be represented in the six Men’s, five Women’s and six Colts Pennant Finals to be played at Spring Valley, Riversdale, The Heritage and Heidelberg Golf Clubs. While eleven clubs will have multiple teams involved in finals across the three competitions.
Close contests are anticipated in all finals, particularly in the Division 1 Men’s and Women’s finals at Spring Valley with many of the Victorian Boys, Girls, Men’s and Women’s State Team players lining up for their respective clubs.
History will also be made in the Men’s Division 1 Final with 2016 ladder leaders Royal Melbourne attempting to win the club’s first Division 1 Men’s title since 1931 while opponent Metropolitan will be chasing the club’s sixth Division 1 flag and first since 1987.
Both line-ups boast an array of young talent with Metropolitan’s team including Victorian Men’s State Team players, David Micheluzzi and Lukas Michel, while Royal Melbourne has fellow Men’s State Team member Will Heffernan and Victorian Boys Team representative, Matias Sanchez. Royal Melbourne’s Paul Little and Josh Hetherington also go into Sunday’s final with undefeated records across the seven-week season.
Royal Melbourne enter the final with just one loss for the season and Metropolitan two, with both clubs amassing 34 individual match victories. Royal Melbourne took the points in the club’s round six win at home against Metropolitan by five matches to two with five of the seven matches being decided at the 17th hole or beyond.
Victoria Golf Club will be looking to go one better after finishing as runners-up in last year’s Division 1 Women’s Final when it meets Commonwealth in the final beginning at 10.30am at Spring Valley on Sunday.
Unbeaten during the Division 1 Women’s season, Victoria has an array of talent including Victorian Women’s State Team members, Olivia Kline, Gabriela Ruffels and runner-up at the 2015 Victorian Women’s Amateur Championship, Stephanie Bunque.
Commonwealth will be desperate to reverse the club’s only loss during the 2016 Division 1 season to Victoria in last weekend’s final round at Metropolitan, going down by five matches to two. Commonwealth’s team is spearheaded by 16-year-old Alexandra Hilliard, who captained the 2016 Victorian Girls Team with No. 6 player Madison Peters undefeated throughout the season.
It’s set to be an exciting showdown with Victoria who is looking for its 13th Division 1 Women’s title, after last winning in 1994 while Commonwealth has won eight Division 1 Women’s flags, the last of which came in 2011.
In the Division 1 Colts final, Victoria will meet Metropolitan with both clubs seeking multiple Division 1 successes with their respective Women’s and Men’s teams contesting finals. Since the Colts Pennant competition started in 1954, Metropolitan has never won a Division 1 title, while Victoria will be looking to add to its sole flag success in 1998.
Live scoring will be available across all divisions and venues at golfvic.org.au.
If you're heading to Spring Valley, be sure to check out the custom Pennant finals geofilter and add 'golfvictoria' for all the action!
The draws for the 2016 Men’s, Women’s & Colts Pennant Finals to be contested on Sunday 22 May can be accessed here.