With over 650 players involved in Men’s Inter-Club Competitions in 2017 it is safe to say that it has been a successful Inter-Club season. Split over four separate competitions including: Men’s Championship Pennants, Handicap Matchplay, Handicap Strokeplay, Prebble Cup/ Tolich Trophy were 106 Inter-Club teams representing 34 individual golf clubs in the Waikato.

  It is great to see that so many clubs are engaging with the Waikato Golf run Inter-Club Competitions. All these competitions will continue to run in 2018, and we are anticipating a growth in club representatives making the most of these competitions.

In terms of the 2017 season, we congratulate Ngahinepouri Golf Club on their back-to-back victory in the Prebble Cup competition; they beat Pio Pio Aria in the final by a narrow margin 6.5-5.5 and Kawhia for their Tolich Trophy victory over Pauanui 7-5. The Men’s Handicap Strokeplay title was won by Te Kowhai who stormed home late to clinch victory over Pio Pio Aria by 1 shot.

The Men’s Handicap Matchplay and Championship Pennant Finals were held on Sunday 21^st May and were played at the Cambridge and Waihi Golf Clubs respectively.

The Cambridge fixtures included: Division One, Two and Five, whilst Division Three, Four and the Handicap Matchplay Final were held at Waihi.
In the Division One final, round robin winners Hamilton took down Riverside in a close battle, prevailing 5points to 4 in the end. Hamilton were up at lunch 2-1 with wins from Morris & Fellows-Ford over Coxon & Membery. Boe & McKechnie would win over Charlton & Yeates. The number three pairing of McGovern & Stevens (Hamilton) would lose 1 down to Piggott & Beattie.
 Three points was all that were needed for the Hamilton team in the afternoon, and with number six Josh Stevens and number five Sam McGovern both winning it looked like it could be all over. Riverside fought hard however, bouncing back with wins from Blair Yeates over James Fellows-Ford, and Chris Charlton over Andrew McKechnie. Nick Coxon beat Matt Morris which would make it 4 points all. Mark Boe (Hamilton) would provide the crucial point needed for Hamilton to win, after he beat Brent Membery.

Division Two was played between round robin winners Te Awamutu and Thames. The boys from Te Awamutu got off to a hot start and would have been grinning at lunch after a 3-0 sweep in the morning foursomes. This would prove costly for the Thames boys as the afternoon scores resulted in a 3-3 draw. John Trim (Thames) beat Colby Grey. Thames number one Hayden Thomas beat Patric Kavetoa, David Clarke halved with youngster Liam McFarlane, as did Conrad Davis (Thames) and Clint Rowe. Nic Ross (Te Awamutu) beat Greg Overend and Grant Tynan (Te Awamutu) beat Steve Gooder. A great victory for Te Awamutu who after losing the final last year will now get their shot in Division One come 2018.

Division Three was won by the combined team of Pirongia/Pouri who prevailed over Whangamata 7-2.  After being 3-0 up after the morning foursomes Ben Jefferies, Dave Seager, Sean Bonenkamp and Tyler Wood all notched up wins to take the total to 7. Stephen Forster (Whangamata) beat Andrew Parsons, and Ben Vincent (Whangamata) beat Scott Law. Pirongia/Pouri will be promoted to the second Division in 2018.

Division Four saw a derby match with Hauraki taking on round robin winners Waikare.
Hauraki was off to the best start with two wins in the morning foursomes and 1 loss. The morning foursomes would prove crucial again with a 3-3 draw in the afternoon singles would see Hauraki prevail 5-4. Geoff Morgan (Hauraki) beat P Wearing, Richard Saunders (Hauraki) beat P Johns, whilst number one Guy Penrose (Hauraki) beat S Gane. W Epiha, K Walsh and K Green would all win for Waikare.

Division five final was played between round robin winners Raglan and Te Kowhai. Te Kowhai continued the trend with an early lead after the morning foursomes 2-1. The Te Kowhai boys saved their best performance until the final dispatching Raglan 5-1 in the afternoon singles matches, winning by a resounding 7-2 scoreline in the end. Silas Toornstra (Raglan) would win his afternoon match beating Keenan Membery. Andrew Lowe, Campbell Till, Mike Kiore, Watty Stanley and Steve Crook would all win their singles match for Te Kowhai.

So it seems the morning foursomes matches were crucial in victory, with all teams who were leading at lunch going on to win their match overall.

The Men’s Handicap Matchplay final was no different, as Ngahinepouri were 3-0 up after the morning foursomes, and didn’t drop a match in the afternoon, beating the boys from Tairua by a 9-0 margin. The Team of R Foster, S Missen, S Davies, A Galbraith, T Muir, and B Johnstone will no doubt be celebrating their victory for weeks to come.

Congratulations to all the finalists, and champions for 2017. For more on results, please see the Men’s Interclub tab on our website. Bring on 2018.

Pictured - Division One Winners - Hamilton