Cairns in Pennant double
THE pain of dropping the title last season has been all but forgotten for Cairns Golf Club after claiming both the A and B-grade shields in the FNQ Golf Association Inter Club Pennants finals.
Teams spent two days duking out the semi-finals and finals of the matchplay competition at Palmer Sea Reef, Port Douglas, at the weekend and it was the favourites who took home two of three titles.
Cairns dominated in A and B-grades and only narrowly missed out on a “green-andwhitewash” to Half Moon Bay in C-grade after the last match went to the final hole.
In A-grade, Cairns’ Matt Spilsbury, Frank Power and Peter Prinsloo each had huge wins against Paradise Palms opponents to seal it after Steve Patterson won the A5 matchup for Paradise Palms.
Southern Districts came within a whiff of the final but were on the wrong side of an A1 semi-final match that went to the 19th hole.
Cairns Golf Club professional Rob Dehne said it was a “superb effort” for Agrade to reclaim the title last won in 2015, fuelled by defeat to Half Moon Bay in 2016.
“We’re back on top where we should be,” he said.
“It’s pretty huge for the club. We’re very happy with our A and B grades and we would have loved to have C grade do it as well.
“I know they’ll be hungry to win it next year, especially after seeing the other grades get up.”
Dehne praised the consistent form shown during the season, in no small part down to players’ commitment to improvement. He highlighted father-and-son team Colin and Hayden Harding, who were at the club practising day in, day out to perfect their game and help B-grade to their triumph.
“I’ve seen them improve a lot over the years and it’s pretty exciting to see those guys win,” Dehne said.
FNQ Golf junior chairman and Pennants organiser Sean Metcalf said the result was not surprising, but well-deserved.
“They had a pretty strong side and then on Sunday they brought Peter Prinsloo back into the side, so they lost nothing,” he said.
After a strong two days on the top-quality course, Metcalf said the decision to hold the finals over one weekend at Palmer Sea Reef was a winner.
“It’s always good up there. They’re getting close to renovations so the greens were probably slower than some players would have liked, but there were no complaints,” he said.
“There were crocs there but there were no dramas. Some players saw one about 2-3m sunning itself but that was it.” SEMI-FINALS (Saturday) A-grade Cairns d Gordonvale 4½-½ Paradise Palms d Southern Districts 3-2 B-grade Cairns d Half Moon Bay 3-2 Gordonvale d Atherton 3-2 C-grade Cairns d Paradise Palms 3-2 Half Moon Bay d Atherton 3-2