The 40th SAOGA Golf Tournament was successfully held at the Clare Golf Course & Country Club from 10th to 14th November 2022.  

We had a full set of weather events over the 4 days – from calm days with full sun to windy and torrential rain. 

10 golfers joined us for a Stroke round on Thursday, 48 golfers had a lot of laughs playing Ambrose on Friday, and 40 to 42 golfers put on their serious faces while playing Stableford on Saturday and Sunday (42 on Saturday & 40 on Sunday) and 4 budding new golfers played Calloway on Sunday – including 7 year-old Oliver Rodrigues, so watch out Sam Garrick, some competition is coming your way!

There was good Sponsor representation on Friday with some new people coming on board.   See our Sponsor details at this link – as always, their generous contributions made the weekend possible.

The food provided at our 4 meals was excellent and feedback on the new Saturday dinner location and format was positive. 56 guests were seated for dinner on Saturday night and several guests participated in the live music provided.  

For those who stayed for the Sunday night BBQ, it was very enjoyable with great food and more live music (provided by Glenn Wilkin & Stu Thomson, with many of the guests singing along with them) during a big thunderstorm. A big thanks to Andrew Hudson & Bruce Clark for putting this on.

The golf course was in great condition considering the amount of wet weather received recently but the cut grass in the rough proved challenging with finding wayward balls.  As always, hitting the fairways made it much easier !  The weather and course condition was reflected with some very average scores. Kris Rodrigues took out the Stealth Trophy – well done!

Overall, the event went flawlessly based on a lot of work from Stu especially, with help from the other committee members Mark, Darren, James, Benn, Jai, John & Oska, and Mike Willis returned to help Stu with the final scoring on Sunday.  

It was bad luck for James Lunnay (along with Sharon Lunnay & June Dewsnap) to come down with COVID the night before the event started – and then Sophie Griffiths came down with it on Friday so she and Sharon Griffiths headed back to Adelaide, leaving Darren on his own (who posted daily negative RATs for the next 3 days)!

Thanks also go out to the Clare Golf Club for their volunteers and the Pro, Phil.  The Country Club was accommodating and it is good to see they are continuing with renovations.

Here is a summary of the results:

Thursday / Friday Winners:

JFK Cup (Thursday Stoke): 1st = Jai Brown, 2nd = Tony van Wyk, 3rd = Bruce Clark.

Presidents Cup (Friday Ambrose, 1st) =  Benn Cox, Jai Brown, Tony Van Wyk, Warren Farrington.

Sponsors Cup (Friday Ambrose, 1st) =  Stealth/TryMoss Team (Jim Stobie, Stephen Moss, Cameron Palmer, Stu Thomson).

Saturday / Sunday Winners:

Bardrill Cup (Ladies Stableford): 1st = Sandy Turnbull, 2nd = Liza Wedge.

Stealth Tools Cup (Best Stableford – Sat & Sun): 1st = Kris Rodrigues, 2nd = Tony Carter, 3rd = Marty Goldsworthy

Cavpower Cup (Most Consistent Golfer): Sandy Turnbull

Ensign / OD&E Trophy (Best Stableford – Sat): 1st = Samuel Garrick, 2nd = Graeme Wheare

SAOGA Cup (Best Stableford – Sun): 1st = Benn Cox, 2nd = Tony Harrison

OICS Cup (Best Scratch): 1st = Jai Brown, 2nd = David Garrick

Santos Cup (Eclectic): 1st = Leon Mulder, 2nd = Kevin Turnbull

RD Koch Trophy (Most Improved): 1st = Brad Cunynghame, 2nd = Marty Goldsworthy

NAGA = Carolyn Kernahan

Halliburton Cup (Calloway): 1st = Kathy Cunynghame, 2nd = Oliver Rodrigues

SAOGA Club Championship:

• A Grade: 1st = Jai Brown, 2nd = Benn Cox

• B Grade: 1st = Bruce Clark, 2nd = Mark Mancini

• C Grade: 1st = Cathy Goldsworthy, 2nd = Lyndon Prior

In addition to all of the above trophy winners, 58 prize vouchers were won by 40 different players for various Nearest the Pin, Long Drive and Novelty Hole prowess displayed during the Friday, Saturday and Sunday games.

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.

Mark Duerden, SAOGA President