SIMPSON CUP
After almost two years, it was Round 1 of the Men’s Pennant competition. The adrenaline was pumping and expectation was in the air. The Grange was playing Kooyonga at the tricky Flagstaff Hill course. The weather was good and the course was in pretty good shape. The Grange won the toss and had the honour off the 10th tee at 11:15am. The team was Ben Layton, Jamie Smith (C), Riley Marshall, Darren Baynes, Ross Steedman, Tyson Settre, and Mark Demasi.
Mark, playing against Geoff Brennan at number 7, led the team off and was one up after 6 holes. He went back to square and the tight match was still square through 12 holes. On the 13th hole (Par 5, 4th) Mark binned a 3m putt for a birdie to go 1 up in the match. He kept his foot on his opponent’s throat winning the next 2 holes and closing out his match to win 3/2. A solid win and a good start to the day.
Tyson, playing at number 6 against Will Somerfield, was 2 up after 6 holes. On the 7th hole (Par 4, 16th uphill hard dogleg left) Somerfield smashed an astonishing drive onto the back of the green and easily won the hole with birdie. Then, on next hole after both players had chipped out from the trees, Somerfield chipped in for par while Tyson’s chip lipped out and the match was back to square. Tyson struggled after that eventually going down 5/4.
Ross at number 5 was paired against Heath Riches. In a good match Ross was 1 up after 7 holes, held the lead through the turn but after 12 holes the match was square. Ross lost the arm wrestle and finished 2 down.
In another tight tussle, Darren played against Joel Durnford at number 4. Darren was 2 down at the turn, kept hanging on but could not claw back the difference and the match ended with a 2/1 loss.
At number 3 Riley had his hands full with Freddie Cassell. Riley never got traction, was a couple down at the turn and eventually succumbed 5/3.
Captain Jamie played against Kyle Hayter at number 2 in an enthralling match. Jamie was 1 down after 7 holes, back to square after 8 and found himself 1 down after the turn. He won the 12th hole of the match (Par 3, 3rd) to get back to square and then gritted it out to go 2 up after 16 holes and finish the match with a 1 up win – our second of the day.
In his first Simpson match for The Grange, Ben took on Frank Vucic at number 1. The match was square after 5 holes but Ben lost 3 holes in quick succession to be 3 down at the turn. He fought to be 2 down through 13 holes and 1 down through 17 but when Vucic’s drive on the last hole (Par 3, 9th) finished inside a couple of metres of the pin, Ben’s fate was sealed and he lost 2 down.
So, the results were Ben lost 2 down, Jamie won 1 up, Riley lost 5/3, Darren lost 2/1, Ross lost 2 down, Tyson lost 5/4 and Mark won 3/2 for an overall 5/2 loss.
Thanks to caddies John Windsor, Jeff Green, Ron Marshall, Cillian (Ross’ buddy) and Jack Thompson for coming out to support their players. Thanks also to Paul McDonald for coming out and trying to keep the team on track.
Kooyonga had a well-deserved win and showed us where the bar is set. We need to rise to that level. Next Sunday The Grange takes on Flagstaff Hill at Royal Adelaide from 12:10pm on the 10th tee. Caddies and gallery welcome.
John Thomas
Captain and Simpson Cup Team Manager
BONNAR CUP
The Bonnar Cup team travelled to Regency Park to play The Vines in the first match of the 2021 Pennant Season. Regency Park has limited practice facilities currently as they are developing a mini golf course on the old practice putting green. Most of the team went to Grange first to warm up and then hit a few short irons and wedges on the practice fairway at Regency Park.
First out for the season was Brad Andrews who impressed by launching his first drive down the middle of the fairway. However it was a tough day and Brad was behind for most of the day before getting back to square going down the last. Unfortunately that was lost so we were one behind.
Ryan Sugars played steady golf all day and turned 1 up. The second nine he really put the pressure on and bought us the first win of the season 4 up with 2 to play. Every time I saw him, Ryan was calm and relaxed and all the shots I saw showed he was in good early season form. Well done.
Alex Nitschke was the unluckiest player, being square or 1 up until the 14th. His opponent then eagled the par 5 fifteenth, holed out for eagle from 100 metres on the par 4 sixteenth and then birdied the seventeenth for Alex to go down 2 and 1. However some really good early form for the season.
In his first pennant match, Nick Oborn showed he was ready for match play by playing some great golf early to be 4 up after 7 holes. However things got difficult after that as his opponent proceeded to birdie 5 holes on the back nine for the match to eventually be halved.
At this stage, Ryan Bak playing his first match for Grange at number 2 won his match 4 and 2. This was as a great effort as he had been 3 down after 5 holes. Many of his team members were surprised he got behind as Ryan has lots of local knowledge having been the Club Champion at Regency on a couple of occasions. A great comeback.
At this stage we had two and half matches and needed at least one win and a half to win the day.
Tim Cece had a tight match all day being around square for most of the day. He sunk a huge putt from 10 metres to turn one up but was still square after 14. He came down 18, one up and halved that to give us the win and now three and a half matches.
Matthew Wilson also had a tight match all day, being either square or 1 up for most of the day. A highlight was not having to play a bunker shot on the fifth as his opponent had plenty of trouble from the same bunker. However, Matthew eventually went down 2 and 1.
This meant the contest was halved 3 and a half matches each. Well done to the team who all played some very good golf and all contests were extremely close. The major comment was that it took time to get used to the greens as they were a lot slower than Grange’s greens. However, no need to get used to them as this week we take on Glenelg at Glenelg at 11.15am
Kym Linke
Team Manager
JUNIOR DIV 2
The first round of Div 2 Pennant was played at Kooyonga on Sunday 9th May. After ensuring all Mothers were made to feel special, the team got down to business off the first tee.
Playing Country Districts, the team steadied after a slow start to take a 3/2 win. Matches were pretty even, except for Mason Holden who consolidated on a good front nine to take a 5/3 win. Our ever reliable Elyse Kozlovic fought back after a nine on the first hole to win 2/1. Two matches came down the 18th square with Eva Cho (playing at number 1) unfortunately going down on the final putt and Hunter Whetstone (number 2 and Captain) squared his match, after fighting back from 3 down. Young Billy White came down the 18th 1 up, but unfortunately missed a putt that squared his match. The wash-up saw us win 3/2 with two wins, two squared matches and one loss. In true junior competition comraderie our reserve Angus Dungey got to play under the same conditions with the reserve from Tea Tree Gully (he lost 1 down but this was his first Pennant Match, well done Angus). Next week we play at Grange, teeing off 1st East at 11.00am.
Paul Whetstone
Team Manager