By Neal Maidment
There’s still all to play for heading into the final round of GolfWA’s Junior Pennants, with at least two teams in every division still capable of claiming top honours.
Round 4 of the Junior Pennants season saw fixtures played at Mandurah Country Club, The Vines and Lake Karrinyup with the standards of golf well in keeping with the calibre of the venues.
In the girls’ Division 1, Mount Lawley 1’s team of Erina Tan, Amanda Gan, Isabella Leniartek, Valerie Khuu and Ruby Cotton made it four wins out of four with a 4.5-0.5 victory over Royal Perth. In particular, Erina and Ruby were on ferocious form, recording 6&5 wins over Chloe Veeran and Danielle Soh respectively.
Mount Lawley 1 will now go head-to-head with Gosnells 1 for the Div 1 title next weekend after Gosnells’ 4-1 win over Joondalup. Amongst many standout performances, Gosnells’ Zoe-Grace Ong registered a 7&6 win over Chloe Frediani.
In Division 2, WAGC and Royal Fremantle 1 will face off next weekend with WAGC needing to win to pinch the title. Royal Fremantle’s team of Taehee Woo, Bella Monteleone, Stephanie Kerr, Sharanya Mohan and Giselle Tan ran out 3.5-1.5 winners over Gosnells 2 in Round 4. With three wins and a half from four matches, Freo sit top of the Div 2 table on 7 points and can afford to halve their final match against WAGC and still clinch the championship.
Mandurah, meanwhile, maintained their 100% record in Division 3. Their quartet of Alexandria Page, Isabella Day, Allayna Engel and Ella Tuckey won their semi-final against Royal Perth 2 by a 4-0 clean sweep. Mandurah will now contest next weekend’s final against Gosnells 3, who overcome South West 3-1 in the second semi.
Lake Karrinyup was in typically spectacular condition for the junior girls’ matches
Boys’ titles in the balance
In the boys’ event, Royal Fremantle 1 remain in top position in Division 1, although their 100% record was ended following a halved match with WAGC 1. With Gosnells 1 eking out a 3-2 win over Lake Karrinyup 1 thanks to Connor Roberts’ crucial 2up victory over Lachlan Pastor in the last match, the division hangs in the balance. Fremantle and Gosnells will now play each other in a winner-takes-all encounter in next weekend’s final round of matches at Mount Lawley.
Three teams can still win Division 2 after a number of exciting Round 4 clashes at Mandurah Country Club. The Vines 1 defeated Lakelands 4-1 to move into top spot in the division ahead of South West 1 on individual matches won. The two teams will meet in Round 5, with the title going to the winner. However, should the match be halved, third-placed Royal Perth 1 could clinch the championship if they beat WAGC 2 by a wide margin.
Gosnells 2 are the strong favourites to win the Division 3 crown after a hard-fought 3-2 win over Lake Karrinyup 2. In what was a tight encounter, Gosnell’s Steele Maxwell and Mahir Manji recorded wins in the final two matches to leave their team two points clear at the top of the table. Only a defeat for Gosnells against Mount Lawley, allied with a win for second-placed Royal Fremantle 2 over Royal Perth 2, can deny them the title next weekend.
Finally, the Division 4 championship will be contested by Gosnells 3 and Mandurah after they came through their respective semi-finals. Mandurah beat South West 2 by a 3-1 margin, while Gosnells recorded a 4-0 win over The Vines 2.
All the Round 4 results and latest tables can be viewed here.
Next weekend’s deciding matches will be played at three venues: all girls’ division ties will be at Joondalup Country Club, with boys’ divisions 1 and 3 at Mount Lawley, and divisions 2 and 4 at Royal Fremantle. As always, GolfWA thanks the host venues and volunteers for their support.
