About Encourage Shield
The Encourage Shield is an under 18’s handicap match play competition that is contested by 6 players from each club. Teams can include girls, playing off the ladies’ tees and/or boys, playing off the men’s tees. Teams play in handicap order, with the lowest handicap player playing No 1, etc. The main goal of the competition is to provide young golfers with the opportunity to test their skills and learn match-play competition in an environment that is fun, supportive and free of undue interference.
Round 1/2
After a washed-out first round, our Encourage Shield team had a great start to the season, defeating The Ridge GC 4-2 at home. With several past players now above the 18 age limit, we have many fresh faces in this years’ squad.
Ben Spicer-Marks and Cameron Weber, playing in the 1&2 positions, both had comfortable wins, finishing at 16 and 15, respectively. Enzo Becina and Zara Todd (3&4) , both playing in their first Encourage Shield matches, also had comfortable wins, finishing on 16 and 14. Zach Fleming and Xabier Hutchison (5&6), also new to the Encourage Shield team, lost their matches. Zach’s match was close most of the day, eventually going down on 17.
The Coast GC was in magnificent condition this week, with many managers from the 5 visiting teams providing great feedback about the golf course, our staff and Henry’s restaurant.
Round 3
Another great week for our team, winning 4-2 against Woolooware GC at The Ridge CG. This was a terrific result, considering that our team had to give away 12-18 shots against our opponents in 4 of the 6 matches. The winning players this week were Cameron, Enzo, Zara and Zach. Ben and Xabier fought hard in very tight matches, losing by small margins. Cameron has won all 6 of his Encourage Shield matches to date – can he keep his unbeaten record intact for the rest of the season?
Round 4
This week was always going to be a tough battle, playing Liverpool CG at their home course. The course presented in great condition, considering that all 18 holes were completely under water during the recent flooding.
The match was very tight all day, sometimes up and sometimes down. At the conclusion, we were narrowly beaten 3 ½ to 2 ½ . Two of our matches were lost on the 18th (Ben and Zara) and Cameron halved his match at 18. Zach had another convincing win in the No 5 position and Ethan, playing in his first Encourage Shield match, won 4/3. Enzo was beaten on the 16th.
Our team gave away 46 shots to our opponents this week, which was very tough. It seemed that many of these needed to be given away on par 3’s, including the last. Nevertheless, it was a great team effort, with all players fighting hard till the end.
Round 5
The final match of the season was against Castle Hill GC at Woolooware. Both teams were equal on points going into the match, so we were expecting it to be very competitive. In contrast to previous matches, our players were receiving shots from other players this week.
Zac and Ethan, playing in the first matches (5&6), both finished on the 16th, Zach winning his match and Ethan losing his. The score was one-all. The result in Enzo and Zara’s match was a similar result, with Zara winning her match 3/1 and Enzo losing 4/3. Kudos to Zara who closed out her match in style, hitting the middle of the green on both the 16th and 17th par 3 greens. The score was two-all. Both final matches, Riley (No 1) and Cameron (No 2), were all square with three to play. There was great excitement with players from both sides gathering around the 16th green to see the finale. This time, it was the other team closing out the matches with great shots on 16 and 17, with Riley going down on 17 and Cameron on the last. The result was 4-2 to Castle Hill.
Overall, The Coast finished 3rd in our group of 5 teams. Moore Park progressed through to the semi-finals from our group.
By all accounts, the players had a great time this season, especially new members of the team experiencing one-on-one match-play for the first time. All members of the team represented The Coast Golf Club with pride and were grateful for the opportunity to play competitively against other clubs.
