Official registrations closed yesterday morning but Chapman was expecting to garner further entries as late as Friday for this year’s 54-hole championships uniquely staged over three days across Orange’s three golf courses - Duntryleague, Wentworth and the Orange Ex-Services Country Club.

Ensuring Chapman enters Saturday’s first round optimistic the 2014 edition of the championships will be one of the best, a whopping 63 registrations were taken for the men’s A grade competition.

“It’s huge,” Chapman said.

“In total we have 143 people coming to play. We’ll be accepting entries up until Friday and we’ll have a number of players contest just one day here and there. It’s on par with numbers from last year and I’m confident the tournament will be a success.”

On top of the massive turnout for this year’s A grade championship - won last year by perennial champion Robert Payne - 32 entries have so far been taken for B grade while 13 men have registered for C grade.

Chapman hoped if there were more entries, they would bump up the numbers in the two lower grades.

Such problems don’t exist in the 54-hole women’s draw, however.

Back to defend her 2013 crown, Alison Seib headlines a larger than expected field in the hunt for the women’s championship.

“We’ve got 33 ladies playing this year, which is up on the 20-odd we had last time,” Chapman added.

“We’ve got more couples coming up from Sydney and elsewhere in the state this weekend than in previous years, which is good to see. People are making a weekend out of it.

“I think come the weekend we’ll be up to the 150-odd entries which is where it was in total last year.

“It should be a great weekend. We’ve got over $6000 worth of prizes to give out as well as 54-hole prizes and daily prizes.”

The opening round of the 54-hole championships begins on Saturday morning at the Wentworth Golf Club. Sunday’s golf will be played at Orange Ex-Services Country Club, while the final round of this year’s championship will be at Duntryleague on Monday.