CAPTAIN: Robert Payne will captain Duntryleague in their division one Central Western District Golf Association pennant grand final tomorrow.
DUNTRYLEAGUE will enter tomorrow’s Central Western District Golf Association division one pennant final without a care in the world, because, by rights, they shouldn’t have even made it this far.
Facing the prospect of a 4-1 semi-final blow out against defending champions Bathurst at the Orange Ex-Services Country Club course last weekend, Duntryleague scraped through to the decider by the narrowest of margins.
With Peter Ferguson (5 and 4 win) the only Duntryleague golfer hitting the ball with any certainty, it took a couple of miracles, the first by Wayne Carpenter on the 19th hole and the second by Craig Stojanovic on the 21st, to secure Duntry a final berth.
“We should have been beaten last weekend,” Duntryleague skipper Robert Payne said, himself going down to Bathurst’s Jarryd Bird in extra holes.
“We were only up in one game and ended up winning three. It says a lot about the character in our team.
“We dodged a bullet.”
Duntryleague take on a relatively green Wellington outfit in tomorrow’s decider.
Dominated by Cusacks, Mitchell, James and Kurt have been the backbone of the Wellington team’s undefeated run to the division one pennant final.
“I went to school with (the Cusacks’) father, now I have to play against one of his sons. It’s a shame Gary (Cusack) isn’t playing, they’d make up four members of the side if that was the case,” Payne said.
“He’ll be there on the weekend though.”
All four finals of the CWDGA pennants will be at Ex-Services tomorrow, with Duntryleague also in division four.
They’ll take on Bathurst in the decider.
In division three, Bathurst plays Dubbo and in division two Parkes takes on Mudgee.
Seeing the experience in last weekend’s semi-final on the same course as an advantage, Payne expected the Country Club course to again be in top shape tomorrow.
“It played well last week, we’re looking forward to playing there again,” he said.
“As I said before, we’re just looking forward to playing this weekend because we probably shouldn’t be there.”