Red Cliffs take junior pennant

RED Cliffs Golf Club have won the Murray Darling Golf Association junior pennant title upon its return.

The team of Ruben Shernack, Mason White, Jack Crowe, Charlie Goldup and Oscar Finch, under co-team managers Chris Thomas and Ben Hogan, claimed a 4-1 win in Sunday’s final over Coomealla White at Riverside Golf Club.

A large crowd witnessed the young guns going head-to-head, with the Red Cliffs crowd especially strong.

Joel Doherty managed the only win for Coomealla on the day, while Shernack, Crowe, Goldup and Finch all earned wins for Red Cliffs.

Hogan said the squad were understandably excited.

“We’re all so proud of them, they put in a massive amount of work to be able to do this,” he said.

“Going back a few years ago, Daryl Morgan and I started giving some junior lessons when we really didn’t have many at all, and now we’re fortunate to have about 25 of them so it’s awesome to see where it is at now.

“Huge credit has to go to Garth (Doherty) and the MDGA for all the effort they’ve put in for the juniors. To have that number of young golfers playing and the support that was down there for them, I haven’t seen that in 20 years.

“It’s been a big six months for us, after winning the division 1 pennant last year. We’re trying to encourage and set the example and we’ve had considerable support from everyone inside the club for these juniors.

“They’ve been playing 18 to 27 holes every day, on top of school and other sports, but a couple have decided to focus on golf from here.

“One of them, Charlie Goldup, actually hit a hole in one on a par 4 during practice a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately it wasn’t in a competition but there were a fair few witnesses to it.”