Harden Men’s Team Win’s SWDGA Pennant For the first time in living memory our Men’s Team have brought home the South West District Golf Association Pennant, and they have done it emphatically with a 4 ½ matches to ½ win over old sparring partners West Wyalong, last Sunday. Our Team of Craig Filmer (c), Peter Steinke, Brian Wales, Tam Kennedy and John Hawkins knocked out the impressive victory in the final, however vital roles through the round games were performed by fellow Team members Matt Peisley, Tim Beveridge and Ronnie Page.
This team has gone on an emotional roller coaster through this Pennants season cruising at or near the lead in the early rounds but getting a thumping by the team they played in the final at the West Wyalong course some 4 weeks ago left their season nearly in tatters. At the end of round 4, the Harden Team was running 4th with only positions 1 and 2 out of the 6 Club field to qualify after the preliminaries. Going into the final round our boys needed a big win and some mathematics to go right in the other rounds.
Harden thumped Cootamundra 4-1 and the other matches fell into place for a finals berth by a mere 1 match over 5 rounds of Pennants. Winners on the day were Tam Kennedy with a 6/5 win over the very vocal Wyalong Captain, Brian Wales 5/4 over his man, Craig Filmer 2/1 up and Peter Steinke 1 up. John Hawkins was all square and had his man exactly where he needed him ready to pounce on the 19th but the win had already been announced so the half each was recorded. The core of this team has spent the better part of the last 20 years as a unit making this the 4th or 5th final in this time.
The sweet relief for this team who have put thousands of miles and good times into this competition, are very happy to have one nailed to the wall for a change. The 8 man team will be rewarded come presentation day with some nice jackets for their victory, provided for by the SWDGA. The team will be getting a pennant and photo framed for prosterity in the Clubhouse. The Club’s very special thanks to the SWDGA Committee who support this competition whole heartedly was iterated by Captain Craig at the presentation and special thanks go to Barry Duncan of the Wyalong Club who marshals the troops to every round, provides scoring and support to the Pennants competition each year.
