Golfers from across the Waikato donned their livery and headed to their designated arena. It was Finals Weekend with stormy conditions greeting hopeful champs thoughout the region.

Waikato Golf had their finals day for the Prebble Cup & Tolich Trophy at the Ngahinepouri Golf Club, Handicap Strokeplay hosted by the Hamilton Golf Club, Women's Championship Pennants and their associated Golf Awards Evening was to be held at the Matamata Golf Club. These events are highly anticipated and all eyes were to the sky where one of the biggest storms of the year was brewing above, a sign of events to come? 

The rain stayed in the east meaning the Prebble cup and Tolich Trophy were able to be played in near perfect golfing conditions at the Ngahinepouri Golf Club. The Prebble Cup Champions for 2018 are the Walton Golf Club. They managed to pip Horsham Downs Golf Club in the final on a countback! After the foursomes in the morning Walton were leading Horsham Downs 3 - 1. The Horsham Downs Golf Club rallied after lunch to post a 5 -3 comeback in the afternoon singles. This resulted in both teams finishing on 6 match points which required a look back to holes won, to determine our Prebble Cup Champion for 2018 (Walton 23 holes - Horsham Downs 18 holes). 

In the Final of the Tolich Trophy, Hukanui Golf Club were able to sneak past Waihi in a thrilling final. Hukanui led the match 2 and a 1/2 to 1 and a 1/2. The match remained in the balance with the first four singles being split until Hukanui's top three of Gregory Van Blerk, Richard Riddell and Lance Smith stepped up to win the match 8 - 4.

The Handicap Strokeplay Final was also blessed to be in the west. With Eastern Waikato being lashed by rain the Hamilton Golf Club provided great conditions for golf. Riverside, Ngaruawahia, Horsham Downs, Stewart Alexander, Ngahinepouri, Waikare, Pirongia, Waiterimu, Waihi, Piopio Aria, The Dunes and Hauraki Golf Clubs, all did battle for the honour of being crowned 2018 Handicap Strokeplay Champions. Despite Holding a 4 shot lead heading into the final 9 holes Ngahinepouri (451) were unable to stay on top with Hauraki Golf Club claiming the honour of Handicap Strokeplay Champions on a great total of 442 nine shots ahead. Third place was Piopio Aria Golf Club (458).

The Matamata Golf Club was host of the must attend event for Waikato Women 18 Hole Golfers. The Women's Championship Pennants Div1, Div2 and Div3 were all held, culminating in the 2017 Annual Womens Golf Awards.

Thank you to Sheelah Lamb for providing the following write-up of the day's events in Matamata. 

     Very heavy rain halted play after six holes.  Very few matches had a result, it was decided that if games could not be completed the score when the hooter went would be the final result.  Most matches were halved as they did not complete the minimum five holes.

Luckily the overall results were decided prior to the final round with the exception of division three.  Both Hamilton 1 (Div 1) and Riverside 1 (Div 2) had unassailable leads and received the trophies in their respective divisions.  Riverside 2 took out Div 3 from South Waikato, who had they had the opportunity to play the final round, the overall results could well have been different.

Unfortunately Peg Murphy was not present to present her cup to Hamilton due to the prize giving being held mid-morning.  Fai Tongdesthri spoke on behalf of the winners and thanked all concerned with the exception of the weather gods!

Waikato Women’s President Liz Bartlett announced the recipients of the 2017 awards and Eileen Bateup presented these.

Hitomi Tamura received the Junior and Senior player of the year, Jill Morgan received the Masters Gross Stableford  Award and Zoann Huang won the award for the player with the most wins at 2017 Inter Provincial played at Sherwood Park, Whangarei.

This concluded a big finals day across the Waikato. There are still several Pennants competitions still to be decided over the coming weeks so be sure to check back here for more updates.