Hunter Valley golfer and defending titleholder Nathan Perry faces a daunting task of retaining his title as NSW Country Golf Champion when the titles are conducted this weekend at the Parkes Golf Club.
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Perry is one of 25 players on handicaps of plus or better while another 41 players are on handicaps from scratch to two.
What the field lacks in quantity it certainly makes up with in quality according to Parkes Golf Club Captain Paul Thomas.
With players converging on host club Parkes from all across the state, the club’s reputation of looking after its visitors will be put to the test.
The Championships will be played over 36 holes with 18 holes on Saturday commencing at 12pm before players back up on Sunday for a bright and early 7am start.
Both rounds will be played under Stroke competition with shotgun starts on both days.
Heading the main list of challengers for this year’s prestigious event is Perry along with Port Macquarie’s Andrew Kirkman, NSW State representative Travis Smith, Nathan Waters from Long Reef along with three Western Area golfers who all know the Parkes course including Robert Payne of Duntryleague, John Betland of Forbes and Dubbo’s Patrick Wilson.
Ironically, all three have held the Parkes course record at varying stages with Payne and Wilson achieving the feat prior to the lengthening three years ago.
Since then, John Betland equalled his elder brother Steve who set the benchmark in 2013 when firing a 68, three under par at this year’s SCT Parkes Open Tournament.
The winner of this weekend’s NSW Country Championships automatically gets an exemption into this year’s NSW Open Championship that will be played at Stonecutters Ridge in Sydney in two weeks’ time.
In conjunction with this weekend’s Championships will be the Inter-district Teams Championship.
Each District in NSW is entitled to nominate teams, the battles within neighbouring districts is keenly contested.
Lachlan Valley finally shed the bridesmaid tag last year over Central West and is the motivation to make it back to back this year.