Te Awamutu Golf Club pennants teams are striving to go one better in 2025 in the Waikato Pennants competition this year.
The Te Awamutu Pennants squad
The club’s Handicap Matchplay teams have won their respective competition three years in a row.
Te Awamutu have two teams in the draw, playing in different pools, and the winners of each of the four zones progress to semifinal play offs.
Team 1, skippered by Alan Duncan were victors in 2022 and 2023, and Team 2, skippered by Howard Wynyard were champions in 2024. This year’s captain, Ivan Rigger, is planning to continue that trend and has a good core of players from the 2024 team available.
Te Awamutu have also entered teams for the Championship Matchplay, led by Adam Fursdon and the Handicap Strokeplay this year led by Rodney Morkel.
In 2024 both the championship and strokeplay teams just came up short in making their respective finals while Team 1 in the Handicap Matchplay draw just dipped out on making the finals. Victory there would have resulted in an all Te Awamutu final.
It’s rare for two teams from the same club to face each other in a final.
The championship and handicap matchplay format is played over a maximum of 36 holes in a day. The championship players play singles in the morning and afternoon while the Handicap Matchplay competition has a foursomes (alternate shot) format in the morning followed by singles matches in the afternoon. Each team has six members.
The Handicap Strokeplay is a slightly different format with a team of four playing 27 holes in a day. The best three of four nett scores are counted toward the team tally for the day. The first round of matches begin on Sunday.
Team captains: Ivan Rigger, Alan Duncan, Rodney Morkel and Alan Fursdon
