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Golfing dynamos take out Country Championships

Posted on September 9, 2011

CHAMPIONS: Mandy Bothroyd, Fran Richards, Sue Walmsley, Eily Raeck, Dora Stewart and Rhonda Young with the North West Women’s Golf team’s Division Three Victorian Country Golf Championship trophy.

By VINNIE RODI

THERE is an old adage that what happens on the footy trip, should stay on the footy trip.

And while footy was the last thing on the mind of this group of golfers last week, the celebrations that followed the North West Womens Golf team’s Division Three win at the Victorian Country Golf Championships was one to rival any football club’s end-of-year festivities.

Made up predominantly of Sunraysia-based golfers, the win marked the first time in 26 years the girls from the North West have claimed a title at the Country Championships, with team manager Sue Walmsley saying the celebrations had proved worthy of the long wait.

“It was a truly fantastic all-round effort,” she said. “All of the girls performed really well, and all helped contribute to what was a fantastic win.

“The bus trip home proved quite the celebration, and it was reward for a fantastic effort.”

Featuring 15 regional teams spread out across three divisions, Sunraysia-based golfers have been making the annual trip for the past 56 years, winning numerous titles along the way.

Held as a three-day pennant, the competition sees teams face off in a one-on-one format, with players earning points for each hole they play, and win.

The aim is to beat your direct opponent, earning as many individual wins as possible to contribute to the team’s overall success.

Taking a squad of 15 golfers and caddies along for the trip – which this year saw the girls travel to Melton – only seven could take the course each day to compete for the ‘Mrs L Corstairs Cup,’ with Sue saying it had been tactics that had determined which ladies took the field.

“It’s like any sport, you want your best team on the park,” she said. “Obviously each team is going to have their own strengths and weaknesses, and each contest saw the best ladies for the job take the course.”

After dominating for the first two days, crunch-time for the local group arrived on day three of competition, when the North West team’s final one-on-one match-up saw them come up against a similarly dominant West Gippsland.

Finding themselves three points down with four holes to play, it fell to Fran Richards to bring the girls home, with the veteran producing her best effort to win all four points.

“It was an indescribable feeling once we realised that we had won,” Sue said. “Fran saved her best for last to get us over the line.”

A title win that has been some 12 months in the making, Sue said preparations for the trip had begun with finding the right people for the team.

“We’re very fortunate to have a number of very talented golfers in our region, with our team’s experience level and age bracket ranging from 20-years of age to those of us in our mid-60’s,” she said.

“We usually get together a couple of days a week to play at the Mildura Golf Club – and have built the team up from there.”

Sue said that while playing golf together and forming a team bond had proved the catalyst for the team’s success, it had been the group’s fund-raising efforts that had proved the most important in helping the girls make the trip.

“As a team we’ve held numerous fund-raising initiatives over the past 12 months, with barbecues and raffles all included,” she said.

“It’s a process that we will look to start again straight away, all in preparation for next year’s event.”

Sue said the North West team’s success in Division Three would see them move into Division Two next year.

“We’re looking forward to the challenge,” she said. “While we’ll be aiming to make it back-to-back Championship wins, we would also just be happy to perform well and stay in Division Two over the next few years.”

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