Encourage Shield 2025
Round 1
The 1st round of the Encourage Shield was played at the host venue Camden GC on Sunday 12th October. Leonay played Campbelltown on the day.
Prior to the Pennant commencing, Leonay had all of the player's handicaps sorted but Campbelltown didn't. As Camden did not have any new Handicap Lookup Charts available, Paul Birks (Team Manager) and Les Knox (Committee President) assisted the Campbelltown Manager to work out his team's handicaps.
From 6 matches, our team did exceptionally well to draw 3 matches each. This was better than could be expected given our boys had little or no experience in Match Play Pennants.
The Pennant was played in very unpleasant conditions, starting the matches in almost heat wave conditions and then the change hit when the team was still on the front nine. The rest of the games were played in freezing conditions, howling wind and sleeting rain.
The whole team did themselves and the club proud.
It must have been so daunting for our players as Campbelltown had a number of single figure players in their team. With 5 matches decided (Leonay 2, Campbelltown 3) it came down to the last match with Jordan Baxter (Leonay) being 1 up going up the last hole. Jordan had a 3-foot putt to square the hole and win the match. Much to the relief of Jordan and the Leonay team, Jordan sank the putt and won his match allowing Leonay to square their 1st round 3 matches each.
A big thanks to team Manager Paul Birks and all of the parents who attended and supported the team.
Next Sunday we travel to Antill Park where we have to play Antill Park on their home course.
