The 2015 season of Friday Women’s Pennant begins tomorrow whist Sunday 15 March will see the launch of Men’s, Women’s and Colts Pennant across a number of divisions.
This season, 36 clubs will be participating in Women’s Pennant, 47 in Men’s Pennant, 44 in Colts Pennant and 34 in Friday Women’s Pennant, in arguably one of the strongest club team golf competitions in the world.
In all divisions of Women’s and Men’s Pennant, each club is represented by seven players with Colts teams consisting of five players aged under 24 as of January 1. At all Pennant levels, the competing clubs are divided into divisions with a promotion/relegation system in operation to determine divisions for the following season.
The Pennant season runs for eight weeks with “Round Robin” match play contests between clubs at one venue in each division every week. At the conclusion of the eight week season, the two leading teams in each division contest a final to decide the champion.
Simon Brookhouse, CEO at Golf Victoria is anticipating the 2015 season to be one of the best in recent times.
“‘Pennant is a fantastic competition that so many golfers aspire to play. This year approximately 1,000 players will be representing their respective clubs on a weekly basis. I’m sure many great story lines will emerge as we work towards determining the finalists in each Division,” said Brookhouse.
The 2015 Pennant Finals will be played on Sunday 17 May at Royal Melbourne, Southern, Kooringal and Patterson River. While the division 1 Men’s and Women’s Finals have already been scheduled at Royal Melbourne, the remaining 15 finals will be allocated following the final round of contests on May the 3rd in order for teams from the same club to be allocated to the same finals venue.
In 2015, Friday Women’s Pennant will be played across five divisions from mid-March to early May via “Round Robin” match play contests between clubs. This season, finals have also been introduced for the first time. The two finalists from each division are promoted to the division above for the following season. The bottom two teams in each respective division are relegated to the division below for the following season.
Men’s Pennant commenced in 1899 between five clubs consisting of Geelong, Royal Melbourne, Surrey Hills (Riversdale), Kew and Essendon (Northern). Six players represented each club with Geelong winning the inaugural Season.
Women’s Pennant has a similar tradition and within six months of the Victorian Ladies Golf Union being formed in 1906, a decision was made to introduce a pennant competition played out between Eaglemont (Yarra Yarra), Albert Park and Royal Park Golf Clubs and five of the Union’s six founding clubs, Caulfield (Metropolitan), Essendon (Northern), Geelong, Kew and Surrey Hills (Riversdale). In 1907, Surrey Hills went through the season undefeated to win the inaugural VLGU pennant season.
Colts Pennant was originally titled Junior Pennant on its introduction in 1954 with an initial age limit of 18. The following year the age limit was extended to 23. Junior Pennant was renamed Minor Pennant in 1967 and Colts Pennant in 2000.
All Pennant Results will be available on www.golfvic.org.au following the conclusion of each round.