51 adults and 7 children, incorporating 40 golfers, attended the 2018 Renmark weekend. Weather was hot for most of the 4 days with a little breeze at times. It was good to see some of our new sponsors and also new members attend.
The Renmark CC was a good host yet again with plenty of food and drink available for everyone. The course was in very good condition with the green keeper presenting challenging pins.
Our SAOGA sponsors provided teams in the Friday competition with a total of 9 teams entered. It was a great day with good feedback from our generous sponsors. Well done to Steve Moss and the Trymoss team winning the Sponsors Trophy and the James Lunnay, Len Dewsnap, Mark Mancini & Dave Crimmins winning the Presidents Cup.
The state of the O&G industry has shown some upturn recently and still presented a challenge with raising adequate sponsorship – but still enabling us to put together an enjoyable tournament – it worked out well. Everybody had a great time with good weather and golf. However, great scores were hard to find this year.

Here is a summary of the results:

Thursday / Friday Winners:
• JFK Cup (Thursday Stoke) – 1st – A Dewar (72), 2nd – T Williams, 3rd – T Carter
• Presidents Cup (Friday Ambrose) – Winning team – J Lunnay, L Dewsnap, M Mancini & D Crimmins.
• Sponsors Cup (Friday Ambrose) – Trymoss Team – S Moss, P Serpo, C Palmer & M Moss.

Saturday / Sunday winners:
• Bardrill Cup (Ladies Stableford) – 1st – V Mortimer, 2nd – C Kernahan
• Stealth Tools Cup (Best Stableford – Sat/Sun) – 1st – M Henderson, 2nd – S Healey, 3rd – A Dewar
• Cavpower Cup (Most consistent) – J Stobie
• Ensign Trophy (Best Stableford – Sat) – 1st – S Thomson, 2nd – F Sampson
• SAOGA Cup (Best Stableford – Sun) – 1st – M Duerden, 2nd – J Lunnay
• OICS Cup (Best Scratch) – 1st – J Trezise, 2nd – T Carter
• Santos Cup (Eclectic) – 1st – S Moss, 2nd – C Belshaw
• RD Koch Trophy (Most Improved) – 1st – A Hudson, 2nd – D Ellis
• NAGA – C Kernahan
• Halliburton Cup (Calloway) – 1st – J Bray , 2nd – J McDonald

SAOGA Club Championship:
• A Grade – 1st – P Chalk, 2nd – J Lunnay
• B Grade – Equal 1st – M Mancini, A MacDonald
• C Grade – 1st – G Davies, 2nd – B Troughbridge

Again, many thanks to our generous sponsors who make the weekend possible. Also, thank you to all who donated prizes for the raffle on Saturday night.

Well, what a great weekend of golf and socialising resulting in SAOGA again the winner with a convincing 13 -5 score.

Some of our team hosted the Victorian guests on Friday afternoon at Grange West followed by dinner at the Grange Grill. The golf was good but erratic and did not reflect what was about to happen.
We played our first game (fourball) at Lady Bay on Saturday morning after a bacon roll and coffee breakfast. The weather was great and the team selections locked in. Great pairings strategy from Darren based on current form research. The course was in great shape and the weather hot with a mild breeze. We stunned the Victorians with good team play for a 5-1 result. Wonderful stories from all around the course. Paul’s 43 points was amazing.

Lunch was an informal affair at the clubhouse bar but followed by a fantastic wine tasting and dinner at Bent Creek Winery – with our member host, Dave Garrick. What a show he put on and certainly impressed our guests. Great array of wine, meat platters and dinner – a good time had by all.

Sunday was an individual match play event at Mt Compass. Our guests came to win and the course, which was in the best condition seen in a long time, was ready to present a challenge. The weather varied from cool to warm with a shower of rain and a challenging breeze. Our guests put up a fight but we won the day 8-4. Again, lots of stories of valour from around the course. The trophy has stayed in SA for 2018 – bring on 2019.

Most of our team stayed in a house at Port Willunga. Reminded me of the Delta Tau Chi fraternity in Animal House. Kudos to Darren for organising most of the weekend. Everything went perfectly and the win was a bonus. Here are some achievements from the whole “team” (courtesy of Darren):

Was a great team effort to retain the cup, but here are some additional honourable mentions:
• Stu for picking up and returning the house keys and for the biggest victory margin of the weekend with 9&7! (I quote: “Poor guy never stood a f***ing chance”)
• Jim for maintaining his Sunday winning form (2 years in a row’s a solid trend – expected forevermore) and for the entertaining evening stories as always!
• Mark for tanking his handicap for the team over the last 6 months to maximise our chance of winning – what a team player!
• Rob for getting through the weekend with the same set of irons! And for letting Tony have a win – poor guy’s been hammered in the previous events!
• Paul for scoring 43pts at Lady Bay on Saturday (how the hell did you do that!) and for coming from 5 down at the turn on Sunday to beat his nemesis Michael!
• Benn for organising the minibus, being the official event photographer and carrying the low handicap badge so none of us had to try and beat Gary on Sunday!
• Ethan for out-driving the big hitters in our Sunday group on our unofficial LD hole (clearly the muscle man of our team!) and for not getting us lost in the minibus this year!
• Mike for the Sunday morning noodles (yummy!) and for the second biggest blowout of the weekend, smashing Jayston 7&6!
• Al for carrying me in the Saturday(he let me contribute a hole or two to keep my spirits up!) and for bringing Julie along to Lady Bay and Bent Creek – wonderful company!
• Chris for taking no mercy on the injured Blake, pummelling him 6&5! And also for his 1.2m nearest the pin on Sunday (yes he made the birdie!)
• Bruce for letting Wayne win on Sunday – he’d have been a cranky SOB otherwise! And also for bringing Nat, Richard and Lou to the dinner – the more the merrier!
• Me for finding my swing again on Sunday (I had NFI what I was doing on Fri or Sat!) and for pulling together a good weekend
• And of course a special mention to Dave Garrick for Saturday at Bent Creek – how good was that!

28 members teed off at South Lakes in cool and breezy conditions. The Course was in great condition and some excellent scores by the winners 

1st Chris Skewes 41

2nd Scott Healy 38

3rd Mark Duerden 35

NTPS 

5 –

8 Mark Duerden 1.5m

10 John Elliot 8m

15 Wolf Engel 6.5m

See you all at Renmark

John Mortimer 

In a very close result Mike Willis won on a count back to lift the trophy at the Vines. With a lot of rain during the week the Course was heavy going for the 27 members with no one playing to handicap and only a handful of scores above 30 points.

1st Mike Willis 33
2nd On c/b Leon Mulder 33
3rd Darren Griffiths 32

NTPs
3rd Chris Skewes 3m
6th Wolf Engel 7m
10th Mike Willis 9m
14th Rob Mulder
Our next round is at South Lakes Goolwa on 16th September, see you then.
John Mortimer

31 members and guests teed off on our return to Thaxted Park Golf Course. The renovation of the front 9 holes is a big improvement as is the general conditioning of the Course. It’s a challenging layout with some well placed bunkers and greens that are particularly hard to read.

Tight at the top with the Winners and 3rd place decided on Count Back.

1st Gary Davies 37

2nd John Mortimer 37

3rd Benn Cox 36

 Ntps

3rd John Elliot  0.4 m

8th Darren Griffiths 3.0 m

11th Gary Davies  0.7 m

15th Mike Willis 0.9 m

See you at The Vines on the 19th of August 

John Mortimer 

For the second event in a row, James Lunnay takes the win at Flagstaff Hill.

Considering the amount of rain and windy conditions during the week we had some good weather for most of our round. James Lunnay made it back to back Wins, 2nd Rob Mulder on his old / new home course and 3rd Bruce Clark .

 James Lunnay 41pts

Rob Mulder 37pts

Bruce Clark 34pts

NTPs

3rd Dwi 5m

7th John Elliot 7m

9th Darren Griffiths 4.5m

13th Paul Chalk 2.5m

14th Stuart Thompson 6.5m

Next Round Thaxted Park 23rd July

John Mortimer 

26 Members made the trip out into the Barossa Valley to take on this challenging sandbelt Course. With tree lined fairways, lots of bunkers and some well placed water hazards this layout can catch you out very quickly! Some great scores by the winners including an eagle on a par 5 by James Lunnay

1st James Lunnay 39
2nd Paul Chalk 38
3rd Frank Sampson 37

Ntps
4th Chris Skewes 3m
6th Annette Pearce 3.5m
8th Carolyn Kernahan 1.5m
13th John Mortimer 3.2m
Next Round is Flagstaff Hill 🏌️⛳️

33 Members enjoyed the beautiful Victor Golf Course in ideal conditions. The Course was in excellent condition and some great scores by the winners
1st Ryan Mancini 39pts
2nd on cb Ben Cox 39pts
3rd Stephen Moss 37pts
NTPs
3rd Darren Griffiths 2.5m
7th Stuart Thompson 3.2m
10th Ryan Mancini 2.5m
14th Tony Carter 3m
Regards, John Mortimer

Another good turnout of members at Tanunda with a very windy day making the golf a lot more difficult. A few players did extremely well and posted some excellent score
1st Paul Chalk 40pts
2nd on cb Ethan Ellis 40pts
3rd Liz Wedge 39pts
NTPs winners – sorry the list was lost congrats to those who won. Also nice to see one of our Ladies in the top 3 well done Liz Wedge