AFTER three decades of golfing action this week’s Shane Doherty Memorial Tri-State Masters will be the grand finale for the event.
What began as a 60-player tournament in 1993 will conclude across 54 holes with 226 players from 94 clubs across Australia and New Zealand taking part.
The brainchild of Shane and Kym Doherty, the Tri-State Masters was aimed at promoting Sunraysia and it’s array of courses to the wider golfing community.
Coomealla, Wentworth, Riverside, Red Cliffs, Mildura, Merbein and Robinvale clubs have all been part of the event, as have Riverland courses in Loxton, Renmark and Berri over the years.
After Shane’s untimely passing in 2013, Kym has run the show, renaming the event in his honour, but she said now is the right time to put the clubs away on the successful annual event.
“It’s been a real challenge again, this especially coming back from the flooding this year as the numbers have more than doubled than last year, so it’s just about getting it back into the swing of it,” Kym said.
“It’s a lot of hard work but we’ve had fabulous sponsors and other supporters who have supported the event for a long time.
“Shane did this for the love of golf in the district and bringing people here and when he had six weeks to live, instead of other conversations we should have been having the first thing he said to me was ‘I know you don’t want to hear this, but what do you plan on doing with the Tri-State Masters?’
“I don’t think he would have been happy with me changing it to the Shane Doherty Memorial, but that was my call once I got in the driver’s seat.”
While the festivities began on Sunday, the final tournament begins this Monday at Mildura Golf Resort, and continues on Wednesday at Red Cliffs before the finale at Coomealla this Friday.
Seven categories of players will compete in the tournament, while social days on Tuesday and Thursday will be held at Coomealla.
Eight previous champions will take part on the final Tri-State Masters.
Two-time winners Garth Doherty ((Riverside/Merbein/Coomealla) and Steven Spooner (Riverside) and single champions Tim Messenger (Maffra) and Ben Doherty (Coomealla/Spring Valley) will all compete in the men’s draw.
Four-time ladies champion Jenny Jeffreys (Portsea), three-time champion Jenny Stephenson (Broken Hill), two-time winner Jenny Chandler (Cardinia Beaconhills) and single-time winner Jacqui Morgan (Monash) all return for the ladies event.
Numerous social functions, which have been a huge part of the masters event, are on offer once again before the final presentation dinner at the Coomealla Memorial Sporting Club.
“It’s been an amazing journey over the past 31 years from something that started as an idea Shane had in 1992,” Kym said.
“In his words — ‘memories live longer than dreams’, ‘it’s nice to meet nice people’, and ‘it’s nice to be important but more important to be nice’.”
