Royal Fremantle and The Vines made a little bit of history as their teams won the respective Girls’ and Boys’ Division 1 Junior Pennants titles.
Royal Fremantle’s girls secured back-to-back Division 1 wins for the first time, while The Vines’ boys ended a title drought stretching back to the last millennium.
They did it in contrasting fashions, too, with The Vines’ boys running out comfortable winners over Gosnells and Royal Fremantle’s girls needing extra holes to edge out Royal Perth.
Indeed, the Girls’ Division 1 final was an edge-of-the-seat rollercoaster ride of a clash, with momentum swinging one way then the other before a dramatic conclusion at a sun-kissed Western Australian Golf Club.
An impressive 6&5 win for Dempsey Brown over Kimberley Innes put the first point on the board for Royal Fremantle, but this was soon cancelled out by Royal Perth’s Danielle Rey Del Val, who ran out a 4&3 winner over Zoe Grace Ong.
With the three other matches all hanging in the balance, a titanic battle ensued, one which perfectly showcased the unique excitement of the match play format.
Royal Fremantle captain Heather Grace Ong eked out a vital 2&1 win over Rose Moorby to give her team a slender advantage, but it required some nerves of steel from her teammates Taehoo Woo and Heejoo Cho to keep their hopes alive.
Woo fought back valiantly from a two-hole deficit to take her match against Lilli Andrew to extra holes. She had a great chance to win the tie on the 19th, but a putt that refused to drop kept Andrew in it and she duly levelled the tie at 2-2 by winning the 20th.
Cho, meanwhile, facing Royal Perth’s talisman Isabella Leniartek in the top match, birdied the final two holes of regulation play to also force a playoff, which she won on the 20th hole to give Royal Fremantle back-to-back Girls’ Division 1 titles for the first time.
Team captain Heather Grace Ong told GolfWA: “I’m so proud of this team. We’re like one big family, very supportive of one another, and to defend the title is such a good feeling.”
Royal Fremantle’s celebrations didn’t end there, though, with their second team taking out the Division 3 flag after a perfect 5-0 victory over Joondalup.
Gosnells, meanwhile, secured the Division 2 and 4 crowns after wins over Joondalup and the combined Lakelands/Lake Karrinyup The Vines teams respectively.
View all the final results and standings here.
Pictured top: Both Royal Fremantle teams celebrate their titles (credit David Ong)
Vines’ boys end 25-year title drought
None of The Vines‘ final lineup were even a sparkle in their parents’ eyes when the club last won the Boys’ Division 1 title way back in 1999.
Nevertheless, their fab five of Declan Pereira, Liam Sullivan, Lucas Cowton, Ethan Hews and Riley Schafer shepherded the team to a memorable victory over Gosnells to cap an unbeaten season.
The Vines Div 1 winners, Declan Pereira, Liam Sullivan, Lucas Cowton, Ethan Hews and Riley Schafer
All of the team members contributed strongly as they progressed to the final courtesy of three narrow wins over Wanneroo, Lake Karrinyup and Royal Fremantle in the group stages – and they carried that form into the final at Joondalup Resort.
Rolling over a Gosnells team led by Australian international and WA state junior captain Josiah Edwards is no mean feat, but The Vines’ quintet held firm when it mattered to take out the flag in another close contest.
In the number one match against Edwards, Pereira produced some sublime golf down the stretch to claim a 2UP victory having been chasing for much of the match, while Sullivan and Mason Burr shared the spoils in match two.
Although Gosnells’ Connor Pearson earned a point in a 3&2 win over Schafer, The Vines weren’t to be denied a famous win, with Hews and Cowton controlling their matches to see the team home 3.5-1.5.
The Vines Team Manager Rhys Shawyer paid emotional tribute to his young charges, saying: “I’m so thrilled for these boys. We’ve all put in a lot of work to build up junior golf at The Vines and to win Division 1 after all these years is a fantastic achievement.”
Elsewhere in the boys’ competition, Gosnells‘ second team won Division 2 after a 4-1 win over Mount Lawley, while WAGC and Cottesloe also enjoyed success in the Division 3 and 4 finals at Lake Karrinyup.
Junior Pennants Finals results
Girls Division 1: Royal Fremantle 3 – 2 Royal Perth
Girls Division 2: Gosnells 3 – 2 Joondalup CC
Girls Division 3: Royal Fremantle 5 – 0 Joondalup CC
Girls Division 4: Gosnells 2 – 0 LCC/LKCC/The Vines
Boys Division 1: The Vines 3.5 – 1.5 Gosnells
Boys Division 2: Gosnells 4 – 1 Mount Lawley
Boys Division 3: WAGC 3 – 2 Nedlands
Boys Division 4: Cottesloe 3 – 1 The Vines
All the scores and standings from the season can be viewed here.
Keep up to date with the latest golf news in GolfWA’s news section and on our Facebook and Instagram feeds.
