MELBOURNE 2016 MELBOURNE 2016
Right and below: 2016 AGCSA Golf Championship winner Brent Hull carded a one-over 71 to win on a countback at Barwon Heads GC
The Moruya
master
In 2011 he beat three others in a playoff to claim his first. In 2016 he collected his second on a countback. Moruya Golf Club’s Brent Hull knows how to win the Toro AGCSA Golf Championships in dramatic circumstances.
Y
ou’d forgive Moruya Golf club course superintendent Brent Hull from experiencing just a touch of déjà-vu when he was announced as winner of the 2016 AGCSA Golf Championship on the eve of the 32nd Australian Turfgrass Conference. Five years earlier when he collected his first Toro Red Jacket at Kooyonga Golf Club in Adelaide, he had done so in quite dramatic circumstances after prevailing on the second hole of a four-way playoff. It was a just one of many highlights that year and in addition to his feats on the golf course, his eldest daughter got married that December and, being a well known horse breeder and equestrian rider, he had a horse qualify for the Show Horse Council’s Grand National Championships, the sports pinnacle event in Australia. In 2016, the parallels were eerily similar. While there was no playoff, this time he triumphed on a countback from Anthony Toogood from the Commercial Club in Albury, his youngest daughter announced earlier in the year she was getting married and, you guessed it, this year he had another horse qualify for the Grand National. The 56-year-old, who finished top 20 in the Australian Senior Amateur Championship at Manly Golf Club last October, posted the lowest winning
total in more than 15 years (a one-over par 71) to claim the AGCSA Championship, played for the first time at Barwon Heads Golf Club. Despite being right on the coastline and renowned for its wind, Barwon Heads dished up a near still day for the event, so rare that former resident superintendent and current AGCSA chief executive Peter Frewin described it as a one-in-200-day occurrence. Starting on the 16th and playing alongside host superintendent Adam Lamb, AGCSA president elect Brett Balloch and Cobram Barooga’s Matt McLeod, Hull quickly found himself in the red after a birdie on the 17th. However, his very next shot undid that good start as he was forced to take an unplayable lie after pushing his drive left into the scrub. Scrambling a five, two further bogeys on 2 and 6 saw him back to two-over, but a birdie on 7 and consistent par golf for the remainder of the round saw him sign for a 71. Playing partner Lamb would shoot 74 and finish tied for fifth alongside another former Red Jacket winner Scott Fogg. For Toogood, a three time AGCSA Championship winner, through 14 holes the odds were looking good for an unprecedented fourth Red Jacket. Crafting one of his better rounds in a while, a bogey on 10 was countered by a fine birdie on the par three 13th and he teed up on the 15th at even. However,
2016 TORO AGCSA GOLF CHAMPIONSHIPS RESULTS Stroke (Barwon Heads) 71: Brent Hull (Moruya Golf Club, NSW) wins on countback from Anthony Toogood (Commercial Club, NSW) 72: Nick Price (The Cut, WA) and Brett Woodward (Armidale Golf Club, NSW) 74: Scott Fogg (Living Turf) and Adam Lamb (Barwon Heads Golf Club, Vic) 75: Jason Seis (Mudgee Golf Club, NSW) and Cory Budden (Sandhurst Club, Vic) AGCSA Classic (Nett) 68: Brad Anderson (Sun City Country Club, WA) 30
AUSTRALIAN TURFGRASS MANAGEMENT 18.4
Stableford (13th Beach) Jason Kelly (Royal Fremantle) on countback from Aaron Banks (Bonville Golf Resort) Nearest the Pins 13th Beach: Justin Bradbury (Bonnie Doon GC, NSW, 7th) Barwon Heads: Anthony Toogood (Commercial Club, NSW, 8th) Longest Drive 13th Beach: Teague Baldry (Marist College, ACT, 11th) Barwon Heads: Nick Price (The Cut, WA, 18th)