It was a wintery day on the Bellarine Peninsula for today’s Stuart Appleby Regional Series event with freezing weather chilling the players for much of the morning. The 66-strong field battled the elements and the gusty winds bravely to return some fantastic scores on the perfectly manicured fairways of Curlewis Golf Club.
This was the first time that the Stuart Appleby Regional Series had made its way to the club highlighted by Curlewis Club Manager, Brenden Caligari saying, “We were very excited to host the Stuart Appleby Regional Series Event alongside some of Victoria’s best golf clubs. To have been chosen by Golf Victoria to host a round of the prestigious Stuart Appleby Junior Golf Regional Series further demonstrates the high regard in which Curlewis is now held by golfers and our peers alike.’’
“It was great to see so many talented junior golfers from across Victoria assemble for today’s event” Caligari also added.
It was a three-way tie at the top of the leaderboard in the overall boys section with Kristoff Soliven, Harry Smith and Mitchell Crabbe all signing for impressive rounds of one over-par 73. However, there could be only one winner and it was Sandhurst’s Kristoff Soliven that prevailed on a count-back to take home the top honours and the Curlewis Junior Open title. His solid back-nine of level par 36 was enough to ward off the other two contenders.
In what is the third instalment of the 2017 Series, young gun Jeneath Wong carded a round of three over-par 76 in the difficult conditions to this morning to capture victory in the overall girl’s section. The 12-year-old Huntingdale member’s back nine was up and down but she came into her own on the front side carding nine consecutive pars from holes 2-10. Kai Shipp was the next best girls section with a respectable round of 78 around the challenging layout.
In the handicap divisions, it was Kristoff Soliven that once again found himself at the top of the podium after he posted a nett score of 71 to capture the A division prize. Another count-back was needed in the B division to separate Navindu Gunasekera and local Curlewis member Matthew McFarlane who tied on a score of 70 nett. Gunasekera’s strong back nine display was good enough to edge out McFarlane for first place. Thomas Ngo from Kooringal returned a steady round of 36 stableford points to seal the title in C division today from Lauren McCleland.
The next Stuart Appleby Regional Series event will be played at Keysborough Golf Club on July 6. A big thanks must be extended to the Curlewis Golf Club for all of their hospitality, support and the way they presented the course.
Click here for the final results