Te Anau Golf Club celebrated their 40th Te Anau Fiordland Golf Classic recently (29/30 July).
Golfers were faced with hard frosts on the early morning roster and glorious conditions on the later roster with tee-offs at 8am and 12.15pm on both days.
Ray White Te Anau came aboard as major sponsors for 2017 and prize giving was held at the Te Anau Club. Fiordland Hotel has been the major sponsor for past 10 years.
One of the biggest golf tournaments in Otago-Southland, it was one of the Club's largest fields - 212 competitors for the 2-day event, from Te Anau, Christchurch, Invercargill, Southland and Bluff. This was the most the field could hold due to the limited winter daylight hours.
A very popular annual event with extra cash prizes for the celebration and the views from the Te Anau Golf course taking in Lake Te Anau and a backdrop of the surrounding mountains attracted a loyal following of tournament golfers, some have had over a 20-year commitment to the event.
For the first time golf brand TaylorMade was sponsoring a Stableford practice round on the Friday (28 July), which attracted 90 players to sign up. Winner of the TaylorMade Classic Stableford was Ross Mangels of Otautau on 43.
Thanks to new sponsor Ray White Te Anau, they were able to reinstate a $5000 first hole-in-one prize at hole 16, tournament organiser Dawn Dowling said.
Dawn Dowling was asked how long she had been organizing the event, admitted she really didn’t know the answer. On checking discovered she took over from Alison and Ian Rutherford in 2004 with the assistance of Marg Hughes.
“That really does mean that I should be retiring doesn’t it”.
”Actually it has been enjoyable but must admit it hasn’t been good for my golf!!”, said Dawn.
Top honours for the Classic two-day event were Ross Mangels of Otauatu and his son Brodie Mangels of Hororata Golf Club. Ross has been playing in the classic for more than 20 years. It is the second consecutive year that the pair have won the Classic Tournament.
The overall first prize for the winning team, $1000 travel voucher from House of Travel Dunedin for each of the two players.
Runners-up Chris Sherlock and Basil McEwing, both of the Greenacres Club, and third place went to Rohan Knowler and Bronwyn O'Brien (Tuatapere).
The Ray White 4BBB winners were Phil McDonald (Queens Park) and Brian Hewett (Invercargil), the Ray White Stableford Men’s individual title was won by Greg Cockburn (Te Anau) and Women, Helen Baird (Dipton).
The club had new hole flags sponsored by Placemakers, new distance markers sponsored by Mitre 10 Te Anau, and sponsorship support from local businesses for the tournament.
Te Anau Golf Club celebrated their 50th Jubilee in October 2014.
Results: Ray White Fiordland Classic
1 196 Brodie Mangels Hororata Ross Mangels Otautau
2 201 Chris Sherlock Greenacres Basil McEwing Greenacres
3 204 Rohan Knowler Tuatapere Browyn O`Brien Tuatapere
4 204 Shane Walters Bluff Paul Pou Oreti Sands
5 206 Mark Daly Te Anau Paul Evans Te Anau
6 206 Phil Mcdonald Queens Park Brian Hewett Invercargill
7 206 Stephen Harris Greenacres Shane Townson Southland
8 207 Pete Thompson Te Anau Alan Miller Ellesmere
9 207 Shona Elder Te Anau Lois Mitchell Lumsden
10 207 Russell Chapman Ellesmere Jamie Chapman Ellesmere
11 208 Rod Carson Methven Mark Sutton Te Anau
12 208 Richard Kinsey Te Anau Peter Kirkman Te Anau
- Julie Walls
