Youth & Men’s Pennant Round Three Update

Men’s Team: vs. Southern, at Eastwood.

Our Men’s team have a fair bit of territory to cover this season, and Sunday was no exception.  Our lads made the track out to Eastwood GC in Kilsyth, to take on, somewhat ironically, our close neighbours in Southern GC.  

Every match is vital this year, as it is shaping up to be a very even competition – and it is the little things that make all the difference.  When the pre match corro was received from Eastwood that there were no range balls available, Team Manager, Lucas,  sourced 200 balls for the guys to have a hit with before the matches start.   It seemed to work. Wins to Caleb Wamsteker 6/5, Damian Kaehler 4/3, Noah Patterson 4/3 & Anthony Cecchi 7/6 were enough to get us over the line.  Gutsy performances from Scott Hooper, Jonno Heys in his first match of the season and Andrew Thomson kept our opponents on their toes.  Ultimately, it was a 4/3 victory, and as was discussed on Sunday night – we are up to our eyeballs in this competition.

Next week we are off to Eastern to take on Keysborough, who are currently on top – so, as much member support as we can manage would be appreciated. (Click on the images to enlarge)

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Youth Team: vs. Gisborne at Kew.

A very pleasant morning with no wind greeted our youth team at Kew Golf Club. For a course that was under water only a couple of months ago, it was in terrific shape and fairways were firm and greens were rolling pure considering what their course has been through.

After a tough win the round before and undefeated so far, the lads were up against a strong Gisborne team who defeated us last year at their home course 3-2.

Mitch Hughes got things going for the Valley as we teed off from the first and would go on to win his first 3 holes. In a match where Mitch never relinquished his lead from the start, some very solid golf was played on the front 9 to give Mitch a 4-up lead at the turn. The match did get back within 2 at one stage, but Mitch would do what he needed to do and finish it on the 17^th for the Valley, securing an important win for the day. 

Jeffrey Jiang was promoted to play at 4 this week as he looked to stay undefeated for his season so far. With Danny Gorman switching onto the bag for our captain Ben this week, it was Jeffrey’s first real test but had Manager Scott Willmer supporting him through his front 9 to give some help when needed. In clinical fashion, Jeffrey went about his work and while he started a little slower, he would hold a 1 up lead at the turn. But as Jeffrey does, he turned it up a notch from hole 10, going on to win his next 3 out of 4 holes to suddenly have a 4-up lead.  On the back 9 at a critical time in the match, Jeffrey hit an incredible 6 iron on one of the tougher par 3’s which was playing 167m, a 6 iron for Jeffrey to about 10ft would help halve that hole and carry him onto a strong victory 4 & 3. Jeffrey remains undefeated this season and as our last hope call up to field a team this season, he has done Spring Valley members very proud in the way he goes about his work on and off the course.

2 points secured safely for the Valley, but we still needed to find one more win in our other matches and we found ourselves down in all three of those heading to the back 9. Adam Oulton was trying his best but was struggling to find his ball striking with his irons. Even his famous chicken mayo sandwich did not help, as he blamed his duffed chip on his hands having too much mayo on them, only to go on and hole the next chip shot in front of Captain Cec Bailey for a half! In true Adam style he kept fighting but ultimately his opponent was too good and won 5 & 4.   

Our ex-skipper Max Delaney had found himself 4 down at one point in what looked to be another point secured for Gisborne. But there is one thing with Max, nothing phases him until it is all over red over. Max fought back and had got the match back to only 1 down at one point. Meanwhile behind them was our number 1 player Ben Newton fighting out against Gisborne’s best player where Ben had not been in front all front 9 and was struggling to find his pure ball striking that rarely leaves him. With Danny on the bag, Ben would re-group and start to win some holes on the back 9 to stay in it.

Max gave a great fight but just fell short on hole 17 where he lipped out to keep the match going, this was a remarkable effort considering how far back he had got at one stage. Once again, he lost no admirers, and it is awesome to watch Max go about his golf as it is highly entertaining. 2 points apiece and not looking good for the boys as Ben found himself 2 down with 2 play.

Ben was just short of the green on 17 with his opponent in the left greenside bunker. Ben putted his ball all about 60 feet for birdie up the hill… it looked to be in and just missed, finishing beside the hole for an easy par but an incredible long putt to only just miss. His opponent had a tough bunker shot but hit a beauty to about 4 feet. It looked all over for us and seemed Gisborne had our number again. Gisborne putted for the win… and missed! In what turned out to be a trickier putt than first seemed, Ben suddenly found himself 1 down with 1 to play and you could feel the pressure weighing on the Gisborne player to finish the match off.

As we came to the par three 18^th hole, there was a feeling of excitement from the SV boys watching on.  Ben stepped up and hit what looked to be a beautiful drawing iron coming back onto the green… It was short but left Ben with a chip up onto the elevated green to maybe have a chance at a three. Ben’s opponent hit his tee shot expecting his consistent draw to bring it back… It did not come back, and it kept going right. A call of “fore!!!!” and suddenly Spring Valley had a chance to maybe steal a draw. In bad luck for Gisborne, the ball was found nestled down and plugged into the right-hand shrubs green side, which left him no choice but to hack it out across the green over to the first tee. Ben had his chip and may only need to find the putting surface as a 4 now looked to be good enough to win the hole. Ben stepped up and hit one of the most delicate and assertive chips for the day, nearly holing it for birdie and stopping it just behind the hole. His opponent told him “That’s good” and left Gisborne to hole an unlikely 50m pitch shot back for the half. It did not get close, and Spring Valley remain undefeated and second on the ladder as we secured a 2.5 v 2.5-point draw with Gisborne.

The lads next play at Cranbourne Golf Club, where we take on Box Hill where a win will really consolidate our top 2 spot.

Hope to see some of you out there soon.

Scott Willmer
Team Manager

 

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