Sport
8 July, 2025
Winners crowned at Rainbow Golf Club annual tournament
Well, the calendar clicked over to July and that means it is time for our Royal Rainbow Golf Club Annual Tournament.
And day one is ladies' day.
Because our lady golfers are masochists, we play stroke for the pleasure of winning a Golden Putter trophy and also a $200 voucher to spend at Horsham Golf Club sponsored by Helen and Don Fisher.
Ladies' day is also sponsored by Mallee Magic and Kaye’s Kollection.
The day dawned, the sun shone, the frost cleared and the crowds turned out.
We had a total of 22 players – our best field for many years.
We were divided into two divisions and sent off onto the course by captain Debbie Lowe.
Players came from Sea Lake, Kaniva, Dimboola, Serviceton, Horsham, Riverside, Hopetoun, Toolondo and Nhill.
When we returned to the clubhouse a delicious afternoon tea had been prepared.
The cards were checked, the NTPs data collected and a search party sent our for the last group.
We were ready for announcements.
Debbie and Helen officiated and started with the NTP winners.
Holes 3 and 13 were won by Leonie Shurdington, holes 5 and 16 by Chloe Mulraney, hole 10 by Noela Hair and hole 8 by Karen Shawcross.
Then it was on to the gross score winners.
The A grade gross winner was Annabelle Plowright with 89 off the stick, with runner-up being Kate Hood on 93.
B grade had to go to a countback between two girls who played together on the day.
Stacey Wallis Rabone come out the winner, with Pam Clugston runner-up, both on 106 strokes.
Then the much-anticipated nett scores were announced.
The runner-up was Leonie Shurdington with 92-22-70 and the winner was Noela Hair with an amazing 97-29-68.
After a very successful Ladies Day on the Tuesday, it was time for the club to put on a new format for Thursday.
Gone was fourball-best-ball, and in was Three-Person Gentsomes.
The Old Course put on a magnificent show, thanks to the hard work Wayne ‘Groundskeeper’ Nitschke and his merry band of volunteers.
The course came up a treat and was clearly ready to host a hoard of the best golfers from far and wide.
With 23 groups of three fronting up for a shotgun start, Captain Leach had his work cut out getting that many golfers up and running.
Thankfully, our visitors showed understanding, and for the most part, the groups of six moved efficiently around the course.
Whilst many teams fancied their chances and played some great golf, a brash young pair were guided skilfully by an older and cunning member of the Rainbow Golf Club.
Under the tutelage of that old pirate, Rodney ‘Popeye’ McLean, two of our youngest golfers, Ryder ‘Rory’ Gould and Parker ‘Tiger’ Gould showed how good they could become.
Despite very nervy starts, the two young proteges sound found their rhythm and hit many a good shot with a near hole-in-one on the 16th from Rory Gould.
Hot on their tails was the strong grouping of Debbie Lowe, Mickey Millar and Shaun Roberts.
No doubt that Debbie steers a very tight ship, and with an intimate knowledge of the course was able to take her team to a very respectable second placing.
In third place were the sentimental favourites – the Golf Family Newton. Stalwarts Pam and Steve Newton were joined by daughter Stef, who has just joined the golfing fraternity here at Rainbow.
And didn’t she play well.
It would seem that this Newton apple did not fall far from the tree.
Finding 56 of their 98 points on the back nine, this group stormed home to almost grab a historic victory.
Whilst the locals did well in the main events, it was the visitors who cleaned up the nearest-the-pins and the other novelty events.
Nearest the pin winners on the day were Brett Rogers (3rd), Chris Surridge (5th), Ritchie Dodds (8th), Graham Puckle (10th), Al Taylor (13th) and Jeff Allen (16th).
Longest Drives were hit by Brian Dufty (Men 60+), Ben Pollock (Men Under 60s), Vicki Hinkley (Women 60+), Stef Newton (Women Under 60).
The Straightest Drive was hit by Maureen Berg, and nearest-the-pin 2nd shot went to the imposing Ritchie Dodds.
Saturday saw 16 teams of four contest an epic Ambrose event. For those who don’t know, the Rainbow Ambrose Day consists of twenty-seven holes, 70 schnitzels, 150 potatoes, about a 1000 pieces of slice, enough beer to fill an Olympic size swimming pool and exactly two pieces of fruit (the sliced strawberries on top of a very decadent chocolate cake).
All this, combined with 64 of the finest competitors that ever walked a golf course, made for an absolutely magnificent day.
The standard of the competition was fierce, and really, nothing separated the top half a dozen teams all day.
The early morning nine holes saw the team consisting of Lucas Edelsten, Ben Gosling, Hamish ‘The Hammer’ Gosling and Rainbow’s newest bandit, Hugh ‘Daley’ Herben storm out of the blocks only to be slightly bettered by the handpicked team of Debbie Lowe, Mickey Millar, Shaun Roberts and Glen ‘GT’ Treverton who shot an impressive 30 on the back nine.
Also scoring impressively were the big hitting team of Sam Cross, Andrew ‘Noo’ Coyne, Joel Schulze and Jesse Day who had the best score of 32 on the front nine.
The afternoon was going to epic. But first, lunch. And what a lunch it was.
With Helen ‘Stephanie Alexander’ Fisher and their merry sous chefs cooking up an absolute storm, it was not long before stomachs were full and our keen golfers ready for eighteen more holes of golfing nirvana.
A quick visit to the bar to stock up with the essentials and we were all ready to go.
The afternoon did not disappoint, with the standard of golf incredibly high, apart from the odd wayward shots as golfers became more aggressive with their shot making with the ‘driver off the deck’ being brought more and more into play.
By the end of the day, there were some great scores coming in with all but two groups shooting par or better in the afternoon and I expect that a few too many visits to the esky may have played a part in those two scores.
Who won would all come down to who was able to consistent across the whole 27 holes and how much of a role handicap would play.
Amazingly, ten teams were able to score 100 or better across the 27 holes.
The winners would come from that group of ten teams, with final standings coming down to handicaps.
To the surprise of everyone, but especially to them, it would be a team of young blokes that won the day.
Coming from midfield (both literally and poetically) after the morning round, this team of four improved as they became more familiar with the course and what to expect from each other’s style of play, which for two of them was pretty loose.
Apparently, they knocked six balls over the fence between them. So… Congratulations to Giacomo ‘The Italian Stallion’ Zoccali, Jordan ‘The Wizard’ Leach, Aaron ‘Brick Top’ Lister and Murphy ‘Beckham’ Leach who stormed home thanks to some mercurial hitting by The Wizard who almost ‘albatrossed’ the 1st and the Italian Stallion who held the team together as they got more and more progressively puffed as the day neared its end.
The team of Debbie Lowe, Mickey Millar, Shaun Roberts and Glen ‘GT’ Treverton continued their excellent form, coming in with an amazing score of 92 off the stick, but being the good golfers that they are, were done by the team with a much higher handicap.
In third place, and seemingly from out of nowhere, was the talented part-time golfers of Heath ‘Plugger’ Clugston, Justin ‘Wormy’ Oakley, Adam ‘Potsy’ Gould (also father of Parker and Ryder) all being held together by Aaron ‘DeChambeau’ Glen.
Nearest the pin winners on the day were Peter Gosling (3rd ), Jenny Smith (5th ), Mickey Millar (8th ), Tubby Drendel (10th ), Peter Gosling (13th ) and Dexter Schilling (16th ).
Longest Drives were hit by Andrew Koop (Men 60+), Aaron Glen (Men Under 60s), Jenny Smith (Women 60+), Rachel Halliday (Women Under 60).
The Straightest Drive was hit by Jesse Day (and it was a monster), and nearest-the-pin 2nd shot went to the irrepressible Roger Smith.