Shirwater Trophy

A much reduced field fronted at Clearwater in what can best be described as testing conditions. For the first time the Clearwater contingent exceeded the numbers from Christchurch as a large proportion of the participants took heed of the weather predictions and scratched. A cold southerly made playing conditions treacherous but fortunately the rain stayed away for all but the last few holes.

Normally we would be hosting Clearwater at this time of the year but given the change of dates for the PGA, our course renovations and conflicting Club programmes the decision was made to fit in another 'away' trip. Certainly in my view we were privileged to be able to play Clearwater so close to a major event and it was interesting to note the tournament preparations as we struggled our way through 18 holes.

While individually some of the Christchurch players were in outstanding form as a team we just failed overall to win back the trophy. However the Men's prize list was dominated by the Shirley faithful: in first position with an outstanding effort of 39 points was Warren Jones 2 ahead of Dean Feutz (a new member and next door neighbour of Ian Walker) on 37 in second on countback from Kim Leung & Ant Doyle and former member Stephen Montgomery. Also featuring on the prize list were Ben Frampton and Shaun Xiong who won a closest to the pin. Unfortunately our Women's group was not quite so successful given the unfamiliar and difficult surroundings.

The first two placegetters won a start in the NZPGA Pro Am on Wednesday so good luck to Warren and Dean especially with the early morning tee time. Playing with Ant he carded a 1 under 71 with 2 birdies, 1 bogey and 15 pars - the reason we lost to Kerryn Starr and Barry Johnston clearly rests with my inability to perform to the required standard (or in fact to any standard - putting lessons are now an imperative!!).

On behalf of the Club we wish Ant all the best in his quest to add the PGA title to the Shirley Open and also to Carl Brooking who is playing on a sponsors exemption - good luck guys play well!!