Ron Budge Senior Pennant Round 7

The final round of the Budge was played at Keysborough Golf Club, which I have to say was in beautiful condition. The fairways and greens were superb and everyone enjoyed the excellent weather. Great to hear that the members have voted to stay at the current site, which is a great decision for them.

The Senior Pennant is played over 7 rounds, but any player can play a maximum of 5 times, so 2 of our top 3 players were ruled out having already played their 5, and the 3rd was out with a family event. This meant a reshuffling of the regular team, but we have good depth to the squad, so were still confident of a win to finish off the season.

Out first was Calum, who actually played a couple of decent shots for a change, on his way to a comfortable 6&5 win. Following closely was Michael Fromberg, looking to continue his winning streak. A couple of holes up slipped away and he found himself 1 down through 17. An outstanding approach to the difficult 18th and a long birdie putt found the bottom of the hole to win 18 and half the match.

Brett Shemmell has also been in good form recently and secured the second whole point for the team with a fine 5&4 win, which was not unexpected as Brett was a member at Keysborough before he came to his senses and joined Spring Valley. The matchplay master, Mal Sosbey was up all day and strolled home a convincing 4&3 winner, securing at least a halved tie as we now had 3.5 points on the board.

If you’ve been following these reports you may have read that Mark Templeton had been desperately unlucky to take all his matches to the 18th, but to lose out each time. We were getting reports from the course that Mark was 1 up after 15, it looked like another close finish. On 17, a fatted chip lost the hole and we thought the match was square. On to 18 and there was nothing in it. Mark’s final putt looked to half the hole, but thankfully we had miscounted and the putt was for a win. Mark finished a most deserved 1 up, to give us 4.5 points. 

John Scheffer was not fully fit and after 6 holes he might have pulled out. 3 down early John limped on, staged a great comeback and took the game to the 17th, narrowly losing 2&1. We nearly had to stretcher him off the course and wish him a speedy recovery.

Stephen Box found himself thrown in at top spot in the absence of Scott, David and Stuart. Playing against a very strong and experienced Ranfurlie opponent, Steve said that he hadn’t played his best and couldn’t follow up his win in the SV Wednesday AM comp this week, losing out 3&2. Thanks to both John and Steve for ‘playing up’ this week.

So, at the end of the 2025 season, we finished a very creditable 3rd, only losing to the two top teams, Settlers Run and The National, who will play off in the finals at Spring Valley this Friday. The Philp Team had another great win and will play in the Final of the Philp competition against Woodlands, also on Friday. The Budge Team will defend the McCafferty Bowl, which we have won for the last 2 years. This is an 8 person stableford competition for the 6 teams who don’t make the Budge Final. If you are free on Friday afternoon, the Senior Pennant teams would love some home support and you are guaranteed to see some fantastic golf.

Calum Munro

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