PARKES GOLF
By PETER BRISTOL
Saturday’s results
Saturday was the annual Parkes Golf Club Party Day and this was sponsored by Parkes Toyota.
Thanks very much to owners Sean and Helen Sloane and team for being behind the club in ’25 and providing this event for players to have a fun day out, dressed how they please and supporting the club with some fundraising.
There were 112 players, again reinforcing this is the most popular playing day of the golfing year.
There were great prizes on offer, and a shotgun start mid morning saw the players enjoy a bit of pre comp sledging and bravado.
The day also served as the Greenkeepers Revenge where the greenkeepers payback all those saved up derogatory comments and snide remarks from the past year by putting the holes in un-gettable places, put objects in the normal putting pathways even put tractors on the fairways and sit back and enjoy the players pain.
The players hit off with overcast conditions which were building and the threat of some rain, a threat which we were used to by now.
Unfortunately, the rain did come and around 2pm we had to have a safety interlude while there was some lightning about. Most players were wet and in need of a sausage sandwich and a beverage by then anyway.
It did detract from the number that managed to finish but there was still 24 teams that did achieve that.
The winning team on the day was a well selected and competitive team comprising Jack Matthews, Brad Wales and Nick Kelly who had a great 57 net off their 8 handicap.
This meant they recorded a 7 under par round, which would have won on any competitive day let alone this relaxed format. Next in were the team of Tim Cowling, Andrew Bament and David Hansen on 58.83 net claiming the prize for runners up and putting some glum faces on the teams chasing hard behind them.
There was a consolation prize for the last team in. This was the team anchored by Harry Simpson and with the Shania Twain twins in Leone Stevenson and Natalie Simpson who recorded a 71.5 net.
The special prizes on went to Jayden Kuun for the Longest Drive for Under 16, Blake Smith for the 17-40s, Nat Simpson for the 41-60s, Pete Magill for the over 61s and Kelli Robinson in the Ladies long drive.
The best dressed male was Tyson Spence and Caitlyn Eshman was the best dressed female.
Best dressed cart was the greenkeepers in Brenton Howarth and Logan Booby, with Riley and Harrison Hood and Harry Clarke were the best dressed team with Jayden Kuun, Tyrece Robinson and Chris Downes also in the mix and the Happy Gilmore Group the best playing six.
The Nearest The Pins were worth winning and very competitive with Dave Chambers picking up the 1st with 1160, Mitch Cambourne the 4th at 430cm, Declan Daley at 55cm, Rob Cheney in his clown outfit the 11th at 278cm and Peter Magill the 17th at 257cm.
Planning has already started for next year’s event which promises to surpass this year’s event if that is possible.
First ever all-Parkes junior pennant team
On Sunday the first ever all-Parkes junior pennant team played in the Encouragement Shield at Duntryleague.
This is an Inter-District Handicap Matchplay teams event run by Golf NSW.
Parkes was pitted against the Lachlan Valley Juniors team, which comprised three players from Forbes and three from Trundle.
At the conclusion of their 18-hole matches the team score was 3-3.
A play-off was required with the team captains playing sudden death.
Archie Quirk from Forbes managed to par the 1st hole to defeat the Parkes captain Taj Harrison.
That win put Lachlan into the next round.
This is scheduled to be played at Gold Creek in Canberra on January 13 where they will play either Illawarra or Moss Vale.
Well done to the players and to all involved for their support.
VETERANS GOLF
By JOHN DWYER
Club “captains” were to the fore at the last twin-towns veterans golf competition played at Parkes for 2025 with Rob Lea (Parkes) and Ken Walton (Forbes) winning the Mystery Four-Ball aggregate.
Lea, a long time Parkes executive drew recently elected Forbes club captain Walton and their combined score of 75 points was enough to win the day by a point from the Forbes pair of Steve Uphill and Frank Hanns.
Thirty players contested the event – including former Parkes golf club member Peter Townsend who now calls Kempsey home – with the winners and runners-up receiving timely Christmas hams.
Ken Walton also returned the day’s best score with 40 points, one better than the Parkes pair of Gordon Pritchard and Rod Luyt.
In the twin-towns shield – for the best six scores from each club – it was a close one with Forbes scraping in with 224 points to Parkes’ 223.
In the nearest-to-pins Peter Townsend and John Dwyer (P) were closest on the fourth hole and Ken Sanderson (F) and Gordon Pritchard collecting two balls each on the 11th.
The ball sweep went to 71 points and winners were: 73 – Ian Ward (P) and Alf Davies (F); 72 – Steve Edwards and Andrew Norton-Knight (F); 71 – Rod Luyt and Richard Hamilton (P); Peter Bristol (P) and Ross Williams (F); Gordon Pritchard and Alex Mackinnon (F); Ken Keith (P) and Peter Townsend.
The encouragement award went to Kim Herbert (F) and John Pearce (P) with 55 points.
This week’s 2-man Ambrose at Forbes – players to choose their partners – will be the final twin-towns event for 2025 and some good prizes will be on offer following generous sponsorship by Woolworths Forbes and Forbes Scrap Metal (Les Little).
As well as Parkes and Forbes players, the event is also open to members of the Lachlan Valley Veteran Golfers Association.
Note that the shot-gun start tee-off will be 10am and nominations taken from 9.15am.
