High hopes: Sgt Peter Chambers was one of ADF’s best performers during the competition against the Queensland Golf Union.
SINGLES match play proved the weak point of the ADF Golf Association as it handed back the trophy to the Queensland Golf Union after their annual match at Brisbane Golf Club from June 14-15.
The QGU beat the ADFGA 8.5 matches to 3.5 in the singles, with the QGU also winning the fourball best ball event 4-2 and the foursomes 4.5 matches to 1.5 for an overall 17-7 win.
Reminiscent of the match against the Victorian Golf Union earlier in the year, the ADF team sported a number of debutants, among them Will Semmens, Sgt David Newstead and Sgt Scott Smith.
Half way through a cool first day, morning matches were evenly contested. There were some convincing leads for both sides with the rest of the field remained close in their matches.
Sgt Peter Chambers and Mr Semmens looked to be coasting at three up against Peter King and Norm Way until Way got his putter working and started knocking in some long putts. The match went right to the last hole, where the QGU walked away with the point.
Way, although well into his 60s, has kept a handicap of five or better since 1971. The ability to come from behind was a common thread for all the QGU golfers.
Highlights of the morning rounds for the ADFGA were WO2 Kim Johansen and Cpl Martin Evans, who ran out five and four winners against Trevor Wouti and Don Palmer; and Col Tony Wallace and Sgt Derek Brown, who beat Peter Roberts and Tony Rowling two and one. At the end of the morning’s play, QGU led by four matches to two.
The afternoon foursomes produced a change in pairings and hopes were high for a lift in fortunes. The ADF team again looked to be holding its own against the QGU with matches following a similar pattern to the morning fourball. Unfortunately the change of fortune did not materialise and the ADFGA team lost 4.5 to 1.5.
Pick of the bunch for the ADF was WO2 Johansen and Cpl David Ely, who beat Wouti and Palmer two and one, and Sgt Greg Fraser and Sgt Chambers taking a half against King and Way.
At the end of day one QGU had surged to an 8.5 to 3.5 lead, which meant that the ADFGA had to produce a strong singles result to take the trophy.
Day two dawned cool but clear with a forecast of a top temperature of 25C. The ADF had to finish with 8.5 of the singles games to retain the trophy.
Initial signs looked good as the ADFGA team were ahead in a large number of games.
Sgt Brown got the ADF off to a great start with a convincing four and two win over Ray Adams. Cpl Evans’s five and four win against Roberts kept the dream alive.
Unfortunately the excitement was short-lived as the ADF took only 1.5 of the 10 points on offer.
Again most of the remaining matches were extremely close with seven of the games being lost on either the 17th or 18th greens.
Highlights for the ADF singles were the performances of Sgt Brown and Cpl Evans, PO Ike Bamford managed a two and one win over Tony Rowling, and Cpl Steve Rotherham walked away with a half over an impressive Matt Dowling.
