Committee for Lorne – Lorne Women’s Golfers break a 26-year drought in Regional Competition

It’s official: Lorne Team are Premiers of the South Western Golf Women’s Otway Pennant!

A very excited Women’s Team won their final match against Ocean Grove on Friday March 22, played at Colac.

Runners Up was the Anglesea team. The Premiership came down to the wire, in the final match. This year’s competition was with Anglesea, Apollo Bay, Clifton Springs, Colac, Ocean Grove and Torquay. The competition was fierce, yet friendly, with many matches very close. Lorne last won Otway Pennant in 1993.

This great win was capped off with a further win of the Otway Shield, a competition for any player who was an Otway Pennant player, held at Ocean Grove. The winners of the Shield were the sum of the four best scores per team. Lorne strengthened its position entering 7 of the 9 who had competed over the past 2 months. Our top scorers on the day were Sue Neill, Caz Bartholomew, Chris Angus and Lesley Goldsworthy with a winning score of 131 points, an excellent score given the difficult rating of the course.

Four years ago, encouraged by the then Golf Captain, Caz Bartholomew, (current Pennant Captain), Lorne formed a team for Otway Pennant with Colac.

We didn’t have enough players to field a team on our own in that first year. The second and third years we were Runners Up. This year we have grown our Team pool to nine players: Caz Bartholomew, Chris Angus, Danni DeBon, Helen Lawrie, Jenni Milller, Lesley Goldsworthy, Paula Hayden, Sue Neill and Wendy Hutchison.

It is full credit to our Captain Caz that we have taken out the Premiership Flag this Year. Over the past four years, playing
in these Regional Competitions, we have been able to compete with other Clubs, enjoying great company and a variety of courses.

Now it’s time to grow further, so this year Caz has organised for Lorne to have a Team in Division 7 for the first time ever, since becoming part of the South Western Golf Association. Division pennant is played “off the stick”, without handicaps. This will be played over April, May, giving the stronger Lorne women golfers an opportunity to take part in Competition Golf – so GO Team Lorne!

Otway Pennant Cup
Lorne is the first club name on the Cup as winners in 1977, winning twice more, in 1992 and ’93 and now the most recent winner.

Originally, back in 1933, there were only six clubs around the Geelong area in South Western District Golf Association, (S.W.D.G.A.). In1964, Lorne applied for affiliation but were denied admission because of travel difficulties, course condition and a limit of 12 Clubs. Lorne was refused again in ’72, ’77 and ’78, also due to being outside 20 mile radius from Geelong.

Lorne was part of the Corangamite District of 18 clubs in 1975, with three separate organisations playing pennant.

Ten of the bigger clubs were in the SWDGA, others in a group called Leigh, with the third, the Otway Association, being Lorne, Beeac, Birregurra and Apollo Bay. The Victorian Ladies Golfing Union donated a cup in 1977, for the winner of the Otway Pennant, and Lorne took out the first Cup!

Lorne finally got accepted into the S.W.D.G.A. in 1979 when that association merged with the Corangamite District. Otway Pennant then opened up to other clubs in the South Western Region, with players using their handicaps, unlike Division Pennant.

The women golfers enthusiastically enter many of the Open competitions around the area, to experience a wide range of courses, as well as showing that if you can play at Lorne, you can play at many of the much flatter courses. The Lorne women golfers are a very friendly group, who welcome any new players.

We would really like to mentor women who have never played before. We are happy to help women who don’t have much free time to slot in a hit to try golf out, perhaps to hit some balls rather than play a game. We would arrange equipment. Of course, women with some experience will also be welcomed.

If you’d like to have a trial hit please contact any of the following women:

Wendy Hutchison, President, Women’s Golf – 0419 878 089
Sue Neill, Vice President – 0418 674 062
Chris Angus, Captain – 0439 008 167
Lesley Goldsworthy, Vice-Captain – 0437 028 169.