Published August 19, 2019 09:46
The 2019 Regional Championship was played at Newcastle Golf Club over the weekend of 17/18 August and after 2018, a banner year for the Coast with Lloyd Radcliffe capturing the major title, some other placings and both the Jim Baker Shield and Sandy Cameron Shield hopes were high that we could mount a strong defence and bring home the silverware again this year.
Saturday afternoon, although quite warm, saw strong winds and on a course such as Newcastle this is a recipe for disaster and saw scores that any cricket player would be proud of. In defence of his title Lloyd played strongly and was joint leader after day 1 with a score of 74 alongside Newcastle junior, Jake Riley followed by Clayton Small (HRDGA) 75, Hamish Ellison (NDGA) 76, Luke Walters (HRDGA) 77 and Darcy Boyd with 78.
Sunday morning again dawned fine and with an early start to play and no wind hopes of some solid scoring was high. However, mid morning the wind came in again and although not as strong as the previous day it was still enough to cause some players some anguish.
Both Lloyd and Darcy played strongly with Lloyd returning the only par round of the weekend capturing the major prize and successfully defending his title of Regional Champion. Darcy's solid golf on day 2 shot him up the leader board and into outright 2nd place and Dave Willett also played strongly to run second to long time servant of golf on the Lower North Coast, Dave Bagust, in the Masters section of the tournament.
Hunter River proved too strong in the team events capturing the Jim Baker Shield and the Sandy Cameron Shield going to the team from Maitland Golf Club.
The full leaderboard can be viewed by clicking here.