2023-4 Trophy Winners

Trophies and trophy winners for the golf club’s financial year ending 31 October 2024 are as follows:

Fred Sorenson Shield
The club’s first trophy event in the 2023-4 financial year was the Fred Sorenson Trophy ambrose competition played on 24 November 2023.  The day was forecast to be a continuation of 4o-degree heat wave, but dawned humid and a splendid sea breeze arrived about 9 am.  However, playing numbers were down as a result of the forecast and only 15 members competed in teams of three.  The winners were Tom McClain, David Hayes and John Campbell – Tom and John claiming the trophy for the second year running albeit with different partners.  They scored two bogeys in the first nine but recovered with help from Captain Tom to score 3 birdies in the second to finish one under the card at 69.  With a combined handicap of 8.5, their net score was 60.5.  Strangely, the teams finished in the same order as their scores with second place going to Rolfe Heldt, Tom Guthrie and Chris Wynne with 70/61.1 and third to David Lynn, Alf Pezzali and Barry Boyd with 71/61.7.

Winners are grinners – John Campbell, Tom McClain & David Hayes

Gerry Gillett Perpetual Trophy – 8 December 2023
The competition for the Gerry Gillett 4-Club stableford Trophy was played in pleasant if windy conditions on Friday 8 December 2023 on the Tuart Course.  Generally scores were a bit lower than with a full bag of clubs in normal competitions but there were few complaints about the choice of clubs from members after the golf.  Ian Johnsen (35 points) was the winner by 2 points from Tom McClain with three other members close behind on 32 points David Lynn, Ric Haddleton and Steve Huckle.

President’s Trophy

The President’s Trophy for 2024 was played on 22 March in in perfect weather on the Tuart Course.  A field of 19 members competed for the trophy and a swag of novelty prizes. Nine players carded scores within 5 shots of their handicap and it seemed that few had difficulty with the greens although they were cored and sanded less than a month ago.  The president generously donated a 2017 bottle of Dukes sparkling shiraz with the trophy to the runaway winner who shot a net 81 on his 18 handicap, giving him a net score of 63 – congratulations to John Stone who also achieved the best nine-hole score of 30 on the first nine with a swag of pars and two birdies.


John Stone (centre), runaway winner of the President’s Trophy in 2024, receiving the trophy from captain Tom McClain (left) and being congratulated by president David Hayes.

Longest drive and best gross of 80 went to Rolfe Heldt whilst the longest putt on the 17th green went to Adam Zieba.  Closest to pins were 3rd Garth Irvine, 6th John Stone, 12th Stephen Thomas and 18th Ric Haddleton, all of whom received sets of 3 balls also donated by David Hayes.  Members enjoyed a pleasant BBQ at David’s home after the golf.

Jock Oehlers Match Play Competition

The winner of the Jock Oehlers Match Play Championship Shield is Alan Smith who defeated Tom McClain 3 up with two holes to play – Ladder. The final was played in very pleasant sunny conditions on the Old Course on Monday 6 May 2024.  To get to the final, Alan had to defeat Ric Haddleton, John Stone and Ian Johnsen which he did fairly comfortably 5/4, 7/6 and 4/2.  Tom McClain’s route to the final was via Graham McHarrie 6/4, Grant Saunders 5/4 and John Allen 2 up.  A hard fought competition and well played to both finalists to get that far. 
The photo shows president David Hayes congratulating the 2024 match play champion Alan Smith whilst runner-up Tom McClain looks on.

Captain’s Trophy

Despite a cool and drizzly start to the day’s play, 15 members teed off for the Captain’s Trophy on 31 May on the Tuart Course.  The clear winner on the day was Ric Haddleton who played off a handicap of 20, scored gross 89 to achieve a net 69 with birdies on 7 and 18 and pars on holes 11 and 12, giving him a net back-9 score of 32, the best nine score of the day.  Garth Irvine came second with a gross score of 83 for a net 70.  Garth scored a birdie on the 17th and parred 6 other holes.  Third place went to Steve Thomas who had the best gross score of the day with 80 for a net 72, birdying hole 7 and parring 6 other holes.  Captain Tom McClain provided a host of novelties as detailed in the post of the day’s results, each winning a prize of 4 golf balls whilst first, second and third place-getters were awarded stubbies of Corona beer.  Many thanks for the generous prizes, Tom. The photo shows Ric Haddleton holding the trophy and being congratulated by Tom whilst flanked by Garth & Steve.

Cecil McPhee Trophy

Congratulations to Ric Haddleton on winning the Cecil McPhee trophy in a close contest with 3 players all scoring 36 points. This led to much confusion in the countback. At the end of a round the “stableford off scratch” scoring method produces the same number of stableford points as the “standard” method and the cards should balance as per normal. However it is incorrect to use the points shown on today’s back nine in a countback as these points do not take into account the distribution of hole index and a player’s handicap. Therefore today’s count back was based on the normal stableford scoring and was in line with the Miscore printed sheet.
Back nine using scratch points                 Ric 9                 Tom 13             Carl 11
Back nine using standard stableford       Ric 20               Tom 18            Carl 17


Ric receiving the Cecil McPhee Trophy from Club Captain Tom.

Ray Dale Perpetual Trophy (Pairs)

The Ray Dale Pairs championship, stableford best ball, was played over two warm sunny spring days, on Friday 13 September on the Old Course and on Monday 16 September on the Tuart Course.  On Friday, Garth Irvine and Grant Saunders led the field with a good score of 45 for the pair, with Grant starring with 38 points.  Ian Johnsen and Tom Guthrie were tied with 43 points with Carl Colli and Stephen Huckle.  On Monday, Peter Warschauer in partnership with Rolfe Heldt blitzed the field with a partnership score of 49, Peter scoring an outstanding 45 points with a gross of 87 from his 26 handicap.  They were followed home by Ian Johnsen and Tom Guthrie with a score of 45 points to put them in second place overall.  The photo shows Peter (left) and Rolfe (right) being congratulated by captain Tom McClain.

Annual Club Championship – 18the & 21st October 2024

Day 1 on the Old Course saw a close run between 5 players for the best gross, with Steve Thomas coming home best with 83, closely followed by Ian Johnsen with 84, Tom McClain, Carl Colli and Bruce Morrison with 85 with a special mention for John Stone’s 87.  Best nett scores were Bruce Morrison on 67 and John Stone on 69.  Day 2 on the Tuart saw Steve Thomas and Rolfe Heldt leading the field with a gross score of 78, followed by Carl Colli 82 and Tom McClain 83.  Consistent best scores from Steve Thomas earns him the Keith Minkey open club championship, whilst Grant Saunders wins the B Grade Championship with a gross of 178 over both days.  Second place went to Rolfe Heldt with a combined gross of 166 and third to Carl Colli with 167.  On count back from Bruce Morrison, Grant Saunders’ combined nett score of 141 would have won him the handicap championship too, but the rules do not permit anyone to win more than one trophy in this event so the Club Handicap Championship goes to Bruce Morrison with the same nett score.  The full results are shown in the table at the end of this post.  The photo shows the three winners – l-r Grant Saunders, Steve Thomas and Bruce Morrison.

Old CourseTuart CourseOverall
Day 1 GrossDay 1 NetDay 2 GrossDay 2 NetTotal GrossTotal Nett
Div A
StephenThomas83747869161143
RolfeHeldt88777867166144
CarlColli85728269167141
TomMcClain85768374168150
IanJohnsen84708875172145
BruceMorrison85679174176141
AlanSherman90798676176155
JohnCampbell89739075179148
GarthIrvine90759177181152
JohnStone876910083187152
Div B
GrantSaunders91728769178141
RicHaddleton96758868184143
StephenHuckle100809071190151
GrahamGuy96759676192151
AlanSmith96769677192153
RichardRussell100839377193160
BarryBoyd1057610880213156