John Kelly from Metropolitan has won this year's weather shortened Alpine Seniors. He is relatively new to Seniors golf but not new to golf - he is an ex Australian Amateur Champion and a former Professional golfer and thus another strong Victorian on the National scene.

His par 72 had him one shot in front of Gordon Claney with a further shot back to Ian Frost.

Barry Webb from Yarrawonga won the Nett event with a fine 67, 1 shot ahead of local Robert Taylor and Geoff Crossman from Rich River. Barry, a popular winner has been battling with his form for some time but may be back.

The opening round was played in very warm conditions but the course was in fantastic shape especially considering the low recent rainfall. The greens were particularly quick but very true and the fairways were in great condition.

Heavy rain was forecast for the next morning - round 2. After a short delay the shotgun start was scheduled, but some players did not even play a shot before the siren was sounded. There was some electrical activity and after a short while the rain became that heavy that the course would have become unplayable. Within the hour play was abandoned.

One group of players - Pat Giles, Larry Maxwell, John Fellows and John Mortimer did not hear the siren. They played 4 holes before they were spotted when another player went out to bring back his clubs left on course. They marked their balls and duly came in to discover play had been abandoned some while earlier. The four were wet through but in reasonable humor given a lot of ribbing from a field of dry players in the clubhouse.

The popular event pulled another great field of 91 players who come to enjoy the terrific hospitality and well presented golf course that is consistently provided by the Bright Golf Club.

Gary Easte from Spring Valley has won the Cranbourne Seniors yet again. He has played the event 4 times - he lost the first in a playoff and has then won the last 3 events. This year his 74, 73 got him into a playoff with Mick Streit (72, 75) from Huntingdale. Gary played a very impressive playoff hole - a drive, a six iron to about 4 metres and then holed his eagle putt!

Brian Gray from Rossdale (Nett 72, 72) had another good event to go to the top of the Lulofs rankings. He won the Nett event on a count-back over Paul Gooley (72, 72) from Chirnside Park, although Gary Easte also had the best Nett for the event.

This was another successful and popular Cranbourne event with a good field of 90 players. Weather was good and the course was in prime condition - our event in between their club championships and the forthcoming Ossie Pickworth Corporate Cup.

Ross Percy from Cobram Barooga won this year's Warragul Senior Amateur (75,80) by a comfortable 8 shots over Ken O'Brien from Rossdale (85, 78) on countback over Eastern's Andrew Hansen.

The Nett event was taken out by local John Bundle (70,75) by 2 shots over another local Hector Melo (76,71) on countback over yet another local Bob Veitch (74,73) and Rossdale's Brian Gray (73,74).

Weather conditions were much improved over the previous year and the course was presented in great condition but there were some tough pin positions for the particularly quick greens, and although the fairways were quite green there was a lot of run on the sloping fairways.

In Ross Percy's acceptance speech he commented on the greens running at 12 and the fairways at 11.

The locals also dominated the Ladies event with Susan Rose winning with 58 stableford points and Glenda Kelly winning the scratch event with 33 points. Glenda is the wife of regular Senior player Tony and new life member at Warragul.

Alan Bullas from Commonwealth (74,75) resoundingly won the 2016 Kooringal Seniors by 7 shots over relative newcomer Tim Kirtly from 13th Beach (78,78) on a countback over Huntingdale's Mick Streit (76.80).

Paul Williams from Kew (72,71), another relative newcomer, won the Nett event by 2 shots over Kerry Boehm from Rossdale (70, 75). Alan Bullas also had the equal best Nett score.

Robert Wallace from Midlands won his first Bachli event, the new Surfcoast Senior Amateur. His 74 at the Sands followed by 75 at Lonsdale was three shots ahead of Greg Welsh (78,74) from Colac and Peter Bence (75,77) from Peninsula-Kingswood.

Alan Buckley from Commonwealth (67,72) has come back with a vengeance to win the Nett event by two shots ahead of Larry Maxwell from Heathcote (76,65) on countback over Commonwealth's Graham Bone (69,72),  and Peter Bence (70,71).

This year is the first of the new combined event of the old Surfcoast and Lonsdale events into the Surfcoast Senior Amateur - 18 holes at the Sands - Torquay followed by 18 at Lonsdale. Both courses were presented in great condition and the event was played in perfect weather.

John Wheeler frm The National won the 2016 Yarra Courses Seniors Championships which was played at Yerring Meadows Golf Club. Competitors found the course tough with John's 76 winning by 1 shot from Shane McCarthy from Latrobe with a further shot back to Mark Brasher from Kew.

The Nett event was taken out by Tom Richardson (RACV Cape Schanck) with a fine Nett 70 and 3 shots ahead of Gary House from Sanctuary Lakes and Peter Bywaters back to Cranbourne.

Greg Rhodes from Coomealla has won this year's Royal Melbourne Classic (73,75,74) by 9 shots ahead of Roy Vandersluis from The Lakes (78, 76, 77) with a further shot back to Darryl Whitehead from Royal Canberra (72, 87, 73). Darryl was the joint leader after round one and had the low score in round 3 on The Composite.

Greg was one shot back of the leaders round 1, 6 ahead of Roy Vandersluis round 2 and extended his lead to win by a resounding 9 shots, after being runner up last year. He beat his score of last year by 12 shots and he beat last year's winning score by 5 shots demonstrating how dominant he was this year. He is currently the top ranked Australian Senior and this will extend his lead and dominance in the rankings.

The Nett event was won by John Kelly from Metropolitan playing off 3 (Nett 76,76,74), one shot ahead of consistent local Alan Evans (Nett 76, 73, 76), with a further 3 shots back to Graeme Altmann from The Sands Torquay, Greg Rhodes and Roy Vandersluis.

The weather for round 1 on The West was Hot and windy, good for round 2 on The East and cold and wet for round 3 on the Composite course. The courses were presented in great condition for the appreciative field with the greens slick and hard as expected.

Mark Abeyaratne from Peninsula Kingswood has won his first Bachli event - the Keysborough Senior Amateur, with a fine even par 73 to win by one shot from local Robert Harvie. Mark played 8 events at the end of last year after "coming of age" and performed creditably. With that experience, a scratch handicap, his apparent availability to play, and a win under his belt he is one to watch this year and could add to Victoria's current strength on the National Senior's scene.

The Nett event was won by local Drago Jurcan with a great 79, Nett 69 to win by 2 shots over John Noy from Metropolitan and Robert Harvie.

The course was again presented in fantastic condition and the weather was good, although quite warm. The event attracted a great field of 87 players (there were 47, 2 years ago) so that augurs well for the coming Bachli year and is a credit to the consistently good presentation of the Keysborough course and the club's hospitality.

Gordon Claney won this year's Sorrento Senior Amateur with some fine golf (73,66) around the beautiful par 70 Sorrento course which was in its usual immaculate condition. With the 2 best rounds of the event at 1 under overall he was 10 shots ahead of Mark Brasher (75,74) from Kew and Greg Welsh (74,75) from Colac.

The Nett event was taken out by Rodney Anderson (72, 66) from Greenacres by just one shot over Denis Cooper (71,68) from Belvoir Park, Greg Welsh (69,70) and Gordon Claney (73,66).

The Kingston Heath team of Gordon Claney, Alex Cairncross & Clif Mitchell won the scratch teams event and the Nett was taken out be Rossdale's Tony Hyde, Kerry Boehm and Brian Gray.

Weather conditions were good and the course was presented as usual in perfect condition - one of the best presented courses we play on during the year. This no doubt contributes to the capacity field of 108 players for the event.

At the Sorrento dinner the trophies for the 2015 winners of the overall Scratch and Nett events are handed out. A good turn up for the dinner saw Tony Hyde, chairman of the Senior Advisory Committee present the trophies.

Ian Frost from Bendigo was a runaway winner in this year's Bachli Trophy over Alan Bullas from Portsea. Ian mentioned other Vic players -Greg Rhodes in particular who is Australia's top ranked senior but does not have the time from work to play many Victorian events. Victoria currently has the top 4 Australian ranked senior players, Ian being one of them.

The Lulofs Trophy was taken out by Ignatius Duivenvoorden from Yarram by a small margin over Paul Fink from RACV. This was Ignatius fifth straight year winning this event.

The over 65 scratch was won by Jeff Hasthorpe from Trafalgar and the over 65 Nett by Ian Davis from Bendigo.

Ian Frost won the last event of the 2015 Bachli season at Port Fairy. It ended a very good year for the Australian representative who has been a clear leader for most of the year in the Bachli.

In very windy conditions day 1 he did not go particularly well but stormed home on day 2 when not in the lead group (84, 74) to overtake the leaders, beating Guy Krall (84,76) and overnight leader Alan Bullas (77, 83) by two shots.

The Nett event was won by Neil Lockhart from St Andrews Beach (79, 71) by 2 shots ahead of 4 players - Graham Bone (83, 70) Commonwealth, Pat Giles (79, 74) The National, John Keller (78, 75) Hill Top and Paul Fink (76, 77) RACV Cape Schanck.

Conditions day 1 were very difficult and play was suspended during round 1 with the playability of a few of the greens in question. Day 2 the wind dropped a little but it was no warmer and there were a number of showers.

Alan Bullas from Portsea won this years Melbourne Classic with rounds of 74, 77 to defeat last years winner Eastern's Andrew Hansen by 1 shot (77, 75) with a further shot back to 3 players - overnight leader Ken O'Brien from Rossdale (73,80), David Mallett from Torquay Sands (78, 75) and Bendigo's Ian Frost (77, 76). This was Alan's second outright victory in this years Bachli events.

The Nett event was won by Royal Park's Tugo Tucun (72,72) on countback over "Howlong's" Jim Maher (69, 75).

There were 2 hole in ones recorded in the second round at Woodlands - one by local Frank Palinkas and the other by Kyneton's Barry Murphy.

The first round was played at Spring Valley played in very warm conditions (34 degrees) and the second round at Woodlands in much cooler conditions and with rain holding off until after play.

Greg Ellis from Forster-Tuncurry Golf Club (78, 69, 73) won the 2015 Victorian Senior Championship by three shots over John Banting from Royal Perth (75,70,78) with a further 2 shots back to Tom Harold from Darwin (77,73,75). Greg was six shots back after day one at Bright but his 69 at Myrtleford was the low round of the day as was his 73 closing round at Bright. Greg off his 3 hcp also had the low nett score for the event.

There was a good field with the other states well represented - the favored Victorians had a quiet event with Ross Percy and Bernie Bickerton being the best in 6th equal. NSW in 1st, WA 2nd, NT 3rd and Qld (Steve Toyne) 5th demonstrates the  breadth and strength of the interstaters on courses that in theory could have favored local knowledge.

Trevor Pattinson from the Commercial Club Albury (72,73,73) with a 9 handicap won the Handicap event on a countback over Bob Angus from Cumberland (NSW) (69,69,80).
John Banting won the 55-59 age group, Greg Ellis 60-64, Ross Percy (79,77,74) 65-69 and Bill Wellington (79,76,78) Huon Valley, Tas - 70 plus.

The event attracted a good field of 126 men with round 1 played at Bright, round 2 at Myrtleford and the final round back at Bright. There was a cut after day 2 with 84 players playing Bright and the remainder playing at Myrtleford. Both courses were immaculately presented and both clubs went to great lengths in their hospitality and making the visitors welcome. A very successful event at the picturesque alpine location. The weather was good except many of the afternoon players at Myrtleford experienced a heavy downpour for a hole and were then called off the course for a short break. On resumption the weather was good, and the rain forecast for day 3 held off 'till a few hours after play ended.

Local Ian Frost had a runaway win in the Bendigo Senior Amateur with 2 fine 4 under par 68's. He won the event by 10 shots over Rossdale's Ken O'Brien (74, 72), with another 2 shots back to Goonawarra's Mick Kaufman (72, 76) and Cobram Barooga's Ross Percy (76, 72). This continues Ian Frost's very good year of Seniors golf where he has an almost unassailable lead in the Bachli Trophy and with his good results nationally is now well established in the Australian team.

The Nett event was won by Melton Valley's Colin Gardner (68,67) by 1 shot over Brian Gray (67,69) from Rossdale.

There was a small field of women with Tina Cowie from Tambo Valley winning and local Alison Woodman winning the scratch event.

A good field of 64 men enjoyed the beautiful weather, although a little chilly at the start of day 2. Given the very dry winter the course was in good condition, although the fairways in particular were crying out for water. The club and Stan Davis in particular put on a great event - many prizes, great hospitality provided, and even the local Councillor Barry Lyon came to present the prizes.

Graeme Altmann from The Sands Torquay won his first Seniors event in the inaugural Melton Valley Seniors Championship with a 76 on a countback from Rob Wallace from Midlands.

The Nett event was won by local Robert Grant with a Nett 66 by 3 shots from fellow member Noel Robertson.  Robert Grant had a hole in one on the 3rd hole and won  the impressive trophy donated for the best Nett score by a Melton Valley player (trophy in photo).

Tony Johnson from Trafalgar won the inaugural Lang Lang seniors with a fine 72 in his first Seniors event to win by 3 shots over Mick Streit from Huntingdale on countback from another first timer in Victoria - Peter Hannah from Pelican Waters (Qld).

Roger Barnes also from Trafalgar and also a first timer in Seniors events won the Nett event with a Nett 71 by 1 shot over Barry Thomson from Southern on countback again over Peter Hannah.

Veena Mali from Waverley won the womens event with 35 points and the scratch event was won by Julieta Barcelon from Peninsula - Kingswood.

A good field of 64 men played the inaugural event at Lang Lang in good conditions but a tough set up and quick greens.

Mick Streit from Huntingdale has won his second Seniors event with a 74, in the inaugural Gardiners Run Senior Amateur, by 1 shot from Steve Wallace from The National on a countback from fellow National member Guy Krall.

The Nett event went to Enzo Cirone from Yarra Valley Golf Club with a fine 65 Nett, 5 shots ahead of local Andy Laws.

There was also a women's event with Winchelsea's Elizabeth Alston winning with 32 points and Heather Harley from Kooringal winning the Scatch event.

The Gardiners Run course supersedes the Chirnside Golf Course and has been opened only 15 months, an impressive course and facilities that will improve with age. A good inaugural event with an excellent first up field of 60 players including a good number of locals and new players to the Seniors competition.

The course was wet after recent heavy rain but the rain held off until play was complete and conditions were just cool and a little windy.

Gordon Claney won his third event in a row winning the Commonwealth Senior Championship and has crept into a threatening 2nd position in the Bachli rankings. His two over 75 was one shot in advance of The National's Guy Krall. Gordon was 2 under the card after 13 holes, in his acceptance speech he went through some of the woes that occurred after the 13th but was complimentary regarding the condition of the course. The field of 77 played in relatively good weather conditions.

The Nett event was won by Stephen Langoulant from Mt Lawley (WA) with a 72 on countback from The National's Pat Giles.

The event concluded a very successful Sandbelt series that saw almost capacity fields enjoying the privilege of playing the 6 six exclusive Sandbelt courses, and in relatively good weather. This series attracts many visitors from all around Australia and its continued success will attract capacity fields in years to come. Golf Victoria continues to showcase how well it runs Seniors events which attracts favorable comparison with interstate events from both interstate visitors and Victorians who travel. Enter early next year.

Gordon Claney won his 2nd event in a row with a fine 3 under par 69 winning the Metropolitan Plate by just 1 shot from Woodlands' Michael Doutch, who was 5 shots ahead of third - Mick Streit from Huntingdale. These were great rounds in reasonable but threatening weather.

Gordon Claney was most complimentary of the Metropolitan course.

Gordon & Michael's rounds also headed the Nett scores one shot ahead of Box Hill's Gary Cornish with a Nett 71.

Metropolitan's President was appreciative of the event and assured his club's continued support. He presented the prizes and made mention of Jason Day's fine win in the PGA in the morning.

Gordon Claney from Kingston Heath won this year's Royal Melbourne Seniors with a 75 on a countback from newcomer Mark Abeyarante from Peninsula-Kingswood. This was Mark's third seniors appearance, and third this week, and has steadily improved each time - perhaps someone to look out for in the future.

Rod Fraser from Monash (NSW), backed up his win in the Nett at Victoria the day before with another fine win at Royal Melbourne. On his first outing at the course he shot a fine 77 nett 70 to be third overall and win the Nett by 2 shots over David Payne from Victoria.

Gordon Claney, recently returned from a start at the British Senior Amateur, was very complimentary about the golf course. Conditions were relatively good - no rain, light winds but quick greens as expected.

Greg O'Brien (76) from Howlong won the Victoria Senior Amateur by 1 shot over Gordon Claney from Kingston Heath.

The Net event was won by Rod Fraser (72) from Monash (NSW) on a countback from Neville Hewitt one of a large contingent from Yowani (ACT).

Kerry Boehm from Rossdale provided the highlight of the day. He holed out with his first shot of the day for an albatross on the par 4 first hole. The accurate 3 wood gave him his fourth hole in one. At the special presentation he humbly (smile) accepted the honor.

Although the weather forecast was for rain it turned out to be the best day so far of Sandbelt week without a drop of rain. The course was presented in great condition with the greens playing rather quick and the Victoria club again excelled with their hospitality.