Published November 14, 2022 08:35
The 2022 Country Championship was played at Shoalhaven Heads Golf Club over the weekend of 12 / 13 November and the Association was represented by a team comprising Dylan Grogan, Riley Millers, Keegan Phillips, Jamie Stephen, Beau Willett and Darren Wotherspoon.
In addition to the team the Association added youngster, Aaron Neville-Smith, to the squad as part of his continuing development.
Hopes were raised on Saturday afternoon when Beau Willett returned a great score of 65, six under par to share the lead after the first round. Things looked good in the teams event played in conjunction with the Championship when Dylan and Riley also posted sub par rounds and Jamie returned a card with 71 strokes recorded. Of the six scores returned the worst is discarded and CCDGA were in a great position with a cumulative score for the 5 best cards of 350 strokes, 5 under par.
Sunday dawned overcast and the second round had really only commenced when thunder and lightning caused play to be suspended for almost an hour and a half but after that the round was played with little interruption. Beau continued his good form and returned a par round to finish tied 3rd in the Championship on 6 under par. Dylan went sub par again to finish 2 under par for the event and Riley also finished under for the event with scores of 69,72 a total of 1 under. Jamie finished on plus 2, Darren plus 8 and Keegan, who struggled to find the fairway with his drives on day 2 finished on plus 12.
The DGA teams event, played in conjunction with the Championship, sees the worst of the 6 scores discarded each day and with some low scoring from many of the players was a closely contested event once again. CCDGA was in great shape after day 1 and with continued good scoring on day 2 was in contention to take out this prestigious title only to be thwarted by the arch enemy, Newcastle DGA by 1 shot. Congratulations Newcastle DGA on yet again raining on our parade.
Congratulations is extended to our squad on the way they performed over the 2 days both on and off the golf course. We could not have had better ambassadors for the Coast than the 7 young men who made the trip this year.