An intrepid group of SAOGA Members (L-R in above photo: Mark Duerden, Bruce Clark, John Elliott, Stu Thomson, Darren Griffiths and Tony Carter) ventured up to the Gold coast last weekend to take on the Queensland Oilfield representatives (Chun Kang, Matt Conroy, Rick Popik, Terry Greaney and 2 SAOGA members Al Macdonald & Mike Willis) in a State of Origin Golf Tournament, with the SA Team emerging victorious with the cup (that is, we retained it from the previous tournament in August 2022) !

Andrew Hudson was also supposed to join the contest but, regrettably, had to withdraw shortly before the event on account of back issues.

The Tournament was a 2-day event held at Links Hope Island GC on Saturday 17th August, where pairs Matchplay games were contested, followed by a Singles Matchplay contest at Palm Meadows GC on Sunday 18th August, along with a social match at Southport GC on Friday 16th. The Tournament followed Ryder Cup rules, that is 1 point for a match win and 1/2 point for a draw, with the SA Team finishing with 5-1/2 points vs the Queensland Team’s score of 3-1/2 points.

Some highlights:

• Near hole-in-one shots by Matt & Chun (both less than 1m from the pin);
• Tony holing-out with a chip after being in the water;
• Mark cleaned up on Friday at Southport with 39 points;
• Mike & Terry had the biggest winning margin of 5/4 over Tony & Mark on Saturday at Links Hope Island;
• Mike had the biggest winning margin of 6/5 over John on Sunday at Palm Meadows;
• Mike, Darren & Bruce were the only players to win both their Saturday & Sunday matches;
• Mike collected $60 in vouchers (winner on both Sat & Sun);
• Chun collected 9 balls and Tony collected 8 balls over the weekend in the NTP/LD competitions;
• Stu, Tony, Mark & John were proud recipients of the pink balls after the games each day (respectively);
• and apologies from Rick & Stu for holding up everyone at the end while we battled it out right down to the final putt – a gentlemanly draw being achieved !

A special word of thanks to Bruce & Huddo for sponsoring the prizes, and to Huddo for organising the dinner venue on Saturday (great beer !), and thanks also to Matt for stepping in for Huddo at the last minute – but we were sorry not to see Huddo on the course.

Stu Thomson ⛳️🏌️‍♂️