While the Wallabies can’t cut a break against the All Blacks, the Aussie golfers can still swing a club successfully with Western Australia winning its second straight Heidelberg Shield.
Retired Print Image director Ross Lockhart and Nigel Ashurst from Visy defeated two-man teams from the Australian states and New Zealand at the PIAA Golfing Society competition.
Kiwi representatives Tim Bull of Sentra Print and Matt Costello of Blenheim Print acquitted themselves well in a tight competition. Ruth Cobb, general manager of PrintNZ, says, “The New Zealand team also received support from Andrew Bull and Chris Smith. While Western Australia won by six points, the difference between 2nd and 6th was only 5 points, so it was a fairly close second pack. The team from Western Australia that won had a combined age of 141 (two players), and the same two players had won the Shield exactly 20 years ago to the day. The combined age of the NZ team was the youngest at 64.
The players had the luck of warm, sunny conditions at Sydney’s Twin Creeks Golf Club followed by a celebration dinner. Cobb points out that the Kiwis actually came fifth, not sixth as reported in other publications. We had the same points as South Australia but on count back we came out ahead, so that made us 5th. There is not a last equal in golf, as there is not a first equal. Count back helps determine the position so, if two teams were on the same points you would not award them first equal, – you would use count back to determine the winner – and they would be announced as first and second place.
The win counts as in Western Australia’s 10th championship, beating out New South Wales and Victoria who have nine wins. South Australia has seven wins, Queensland six, and the Kiwis had their sole win in 2012.
Pictured above: Kiwi reps Matt Costello and Tim Bull
