Pennant 2010

The senior pennant pre season commenced on Thursday evening November 12th. It was a perfect time of year to commence the season with Tiger in town and Golf on everyone’s mind, the enthusiasm was at fever pitch. The theme of the first meeting was to establish what it was we wanted to achieve as a group and what was required to ensure we gave ourselves the best opportunities to be successful in achieving our goals. Obviously we all want to achieve the ultimate in winning the Pennant flag for season 2010. In order to achieve this, we as a group needed to set some basic ground rules, for without a clear direction nothing can be gained. It was to that end our practice regime was formulated. Below is an indication of what is and has happened in our preparation thus far:

Firstly, with Steven Combes unavailable for the season a new Team Captain was needed, who better than Daniel Millman to lead the team. Daniel as you would all know is a Long Islander through and through. His enthusiasm for the Club and for Pennant is what one needs to be successful. Daniel has been a member of Long Island for 18 years and represented the Club at Colts level. Daniel's relationship with the squad members is very strong and his communication skills are exemplary, make no mistake, communication is a key component when it comes to managing a list of extremely talented individuals.

The team list comprises of: Daniel Millman, Andy Collins, Dylan Higgins, Luke Kane, Terry Smith, James Marchesani, Michael O’Keefe, Julian Valvo, Dung Nguyen and Kim Johnson. All are extremely capable golfers in their right.

The pre season playing practice kicked off with a round at Kooringal on Sunday January 12th. It is worth noting that none of the squad had played the course prior to this and both Andy Collins and Dylan Higgins playing head to head returned scores of 64, needless to say the match was halved, Julian Valvo returned a score of 69. These were quite remarkable results considering and an indication of how serious they are taking their preparation.

Sunday January 17th saw us at Kingston Heath. A venue that always lives up to its reputation, our players treated this course with the respect it so richly deserves and as a result were able to return very good results.

Sunday January 24th we were at Spring Valley. Again, a course that requires good course management and as a result saw the squad return very solid results.

Sunday January 31st was a practice free day. With the Club Championship qualifying the previous day it was agreed there would be no need for any practice this day.

Sunday February 7th saw us at Metropolitan Golf Club. Like Kingston Heath this course must be treated with the greatest of respect and it was with this respect Andy Collins returned a score of 69. When you take into account Andy had not played the course previously this was a wonderful result.

Sunday February 14th and 21st the squad will be having head to head matches against the colt's squad at Long Island. These matches will be set up by both James Pratt and myself. Obviously with some players from both squads still playing in the Club Championships these matches will feature players pressing for selection.

Our final practice round will be at Heritage on Sunday February 28th it is at this venue all squad members, both senior and colts will go head to head to finalize playing lists for season 2010.

As you can see with the pre-arranged practice rounds and our Thursday evening practice drills at Long Island we have had a very solid preparation this far and all players are totally committed to each other, and to the goal of bringing back to Long Island a Pennant Flag/Flags, how good would it be if both teams are successful.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank David Smith and the office staff for their tireless contribution in helping organize the pre season practice and the ongoing communications required.

It also goes without saying that without the assistance of Richard Quested and his staff we would be far from ready to compete at this level of amateur competition.

Finally and most importantly, I would on behalf of the Pennant Squads like to express my sincere gratitude to Greg Carr for his generous sponsorship of Long Islands Pennant Teams for Season 2010.

Pennant Manager
Wayne Rogers