The Winter Cup is one of the four major events in the men’s golfing calendar and the history of the event dates back to 1938, making it one of the longest running events at this golf club. This year the Winter Cup was sponsored by Andrew Frazer, a big thank you to Andrew for his generosity in making this event possible.
The Winter Cup is considered to be one of the more difficult major events due to the wintery conditions in which play takes place and this year was no exception. The event is traditionally played as a 36 hole PAR event across two days, but due to the considerable rain experienced on Saturday the decision was made to reduce the event to a 27 hole modified format. This was not an easy decision to make, but it was made to retain equality and fairness to players participating in the event. A special thank you to Greg Fitzhardinge for his tireless work over the weekend ensuring the event ran smoothly and his efforts and advice were invaluable to our captain Joe Alexander and vice Stewart Wharton.
The logistics of this were that players from Saturday afternoon who were unable to complete their first 18 hole round proceeded to return on Sunday afternoon to finish their first 18 hole round and then to play an additional 9 hole round.
Despite the less than ideal conditions there was still some strong display of golfing prowess with a Round 1 score of +3 from Damon Watkins, a strong favourite for this year’s event. Other good scores included a +2 from Ian Mumford and +1 for Brian Stuart and Ron Birmingham.
As the players commenced their final 9 hole stint it was clear that the great Round 2 score from Sunday morning by Hugo McChesney of +5 for 9 holes and +4 over 27 holes was going to be highly competitive and as the winds became more gusty as the afternoon proceeded Damon Watkin’s dreams became more difficult to achieve. After a fantastic first round, Damon’s second round of -1 placed him as a clear runner up with +2 over the 27 hole event. James Smith also had a great second round of +2 to bring him to +1 overall, finishing in third place.
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Congratulations to Hugo McChesney for his first major win at Nedlands Golf Club and well done to Damon Watkins for another strong major display, this year’s Winter Cup runner-up.
Thank you again to our sponsor Andrew Frazer for his support of the event, major events are not possible without such generosity. At the presentation Andrew noted that he believed the Winter Cup was the most difficult of all NGC men’s majors and this year the weather supported this statement and was appropriate for the title of the event. Thanks to all players who participated and braved the wintery conditions to complete both rounds. Thank you again to Greg Fitzhardinge for his considerable efforts over the weekend, without the support of volunteers like Greg and sponsors like Andrew these events are not possible.
The prizesheet for this year’s Winter Cup can be found here:
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