Master Builders National Golf Tournament Brisbane 2018

The NSW team was reduced to 10 players only days prior to the tournament with Paul Pritchard off to hospital for heart repairs and Hillary staying back to support his ill son.

Sunday night was a very enjoyable opening dinner at the Royal on the Park, with Brett and the rest of the Queensland organisers putting on a well run show which included a entertaining interview with Charlie Earp.

Brisbane’s weather over the previous week had been very wet and continued to rain as we assembled for Monday’s game at Wynham golf club. The field prepared for a soggy day and that’s pretty much what we got , very heavy under foot and almost impossible to escape the casual water.

Never the less everyone competed with good cheer and battled on.

New boy Mark Barnes lead the scores for NSW with 34 points , supported by Allan Scully and Graeme Degnan with 32 points each. Not bad given the conditions with only a few of the field playing to there handicap.

Tuesday’s weather looked a little brighter as we headed out to Gailes golf club. This tree lined layout had plenty of slope to the fairways but was still very sloppy in parts and a longer track than Wynham. Local kangaroos lined most fairways and seemed happy to laze about munching on the abundant grass.

Again scoring was tough Troy Loh compiling 34 points followed by Tim Hooper with 32 and Barry Morcom with 31.

Tuesday nights team dinner was held at Walters Steak House near the hotel , where the steak was exceptional and a great night was enjoyed by all.

The Wednesday lay day was held at the famous Storey Bridge Hotel , with great food and service laid on by the staff and entertainment provided by a top quality musical duo. All who attended had a great day and enjoyed seeing the Queensland sunshine for the first time this week.

The final game was held at the Oxley golf club and the weather seemed promising. This is a serious golf course and provided a real challenge with its length from the back plates and no run on the fairways after all the rain. As it turned out the weather gods were looking after us with rain once again falling , after we had finished and were enjoying the clubhouse. Garry Gibson and Troy both managed 32 points and Tim chipped in with 31.

The feeling around the room was that once again it was all going to be very close , with Queensland and Victoria most likely to fight it out to raise the Hornibrook Cup. In the end it was victory to the home side , Queensland by a very narrow margin, first time since 1991.

Top Three for NSW were Troy Loh 92 points , Tim Hooper 90 points and Garry Gibson with 89 points. NSW came in fourth this year and we look forward to going a little better in south Australia next year.

Happy Golfing,

Garry Gibson

NSW Captain