Aorangi Golf - Men's Pennants Final
The Men's Pennants finals took place at Gleniti Golf Club. recently . The day saw the Patterson, Alexander and MOyes grade in action as they not only battled each other, but they battled the clock to ensure they could beat the impeding ominous weather scheduled to come through that evening.
The Gleniti layout was well prepared and in good condition especially given the weather that swept through on Friday and Saturday. Always a tricky course, Gleniti puts a premium on accuracy off the tee and avoiding the white pegs at all costs.
In the Patterson grade, the big-hitting and low-handicapped Rakaia team took on Pleasant Point with both teams hungry for the title. Expectations were that this would be a close one and it appeared to be this with the top half of the order with Jeremy Duckmanton and Ryan Cockburn winning their matches for Rakaia whilst Steve Pilcher and Ray Malcolm took the points for Point. However, crucially, Point managed to claim both of these fourballs and with Peter Clemens winning along with Ian McEwen and Alan Hobson halving, Point had enough points to claim the chocolates already. In the end, the final result was 13 - 5 as Pleasant Point became champions for Patterson in 2024! Winners pictured below:
The Alexander grade which commenced off the tenth tee, Pleasant Point took on Ashburton in what was predicted to be another tight affair. However, Pleasant Point was clearly inspired and motivated to close this out. In what was a dominant showing, Steve Le Lievre, Michael Ford, Jeff Shaw, Darrell Milne, Jeff Paul and Stephen Ballantyne were the six men tasked with victory and each of them achieved this along with their respective fourballs to claim an 18 - 0 victory. A truly impressive day in South Canterbury for these lads who became champions for Alexander in 2024 and immortalized Pleasant Point in the process! Winners pictured below:
In the Moyes Final, Pleasant Point had no opportunity to clean sweep the day as this final saw Rakaia take on Tinwald. Starting at the top of the order, Tinwald was strong and claimed to wins to Shane Webster and Lyndon Moore to show positive signs. However, Rakaia stepped up and managed to claim the other four singles matches with wins to John Cockburn, Joe Lepaio, John Stara and Reon Hoare leaving the singles matches 8 - 4 and meaning Rakaia would only need one Fourball to take them across the line. They did better than this and swept the fourballs to escalate their total to 14 points against Tinwald's 4 and with this, became the Moyes Champions for 2024! Winners pictured below:
