The Cypress Lakes Classic and Hunter Tour
4 to 6 March 2026
TD Nick Hillyard
Sadly our Tour founder and long time organiser was still recovering from his right shoulder and nerve injury 11 weeks ago and could not play. But of course as always he did all the the lead up work and turned up for dinner on the Thursday and to watch over The Classic on Friday. He handed over his meticulous planning to Rob Lowndes to implement over the three days and Rob did not stuff up too much other than being over generous handing out Nick's balls after the game at The Vintage.
Accommodation was initially booked at the Cypress Lakes Resort. But they had double booked and Nick's influence led the Resort to switch our booking to the luxurious Elysia "wellness" resort at the top of the hill at a much reduced rate.
Seven started at the HVCC on Wednesday at 11 a.m. at the HVCC. The first event simply to get us all into the swing of things so there were no lost shots but the losing team had to buy the winners their first drink. Price $50 pp.
Day 2 was at The Vintage with first Tee time at 9 a.m. Tim & Roger joined to make up 3 x 3's. Price $93 pp.
Day 3 was at Cypress Lakes at 9 a.m. and the day 2 field were joined by SU for a total of 10 players for this most prestigious of all Majors. Price $110 pp.
In summary, great fun and thanks to all participants. As always a huge thankyou to Nick for organising this event again.
2026 Results
Day 1 Wednesday 4 March 2026, Hunter Valley Country Club
Ambrose with the team of the 3 bed villa ( PT, PB, NMc ) taking on the occupants of the 2 x 2 bedders (RB, SF/MB, RL). Team handicaps were Smergs handicaps summed and divided by 8 for the team of 4 and by 6 for the team of 3. Each player must use a min of one drive on each nine.
|
Team |
Player |
H'cap |
Team H'cap |
Front 9 |
Back 9 |
Gross |
Nett |
|
1 |
Neil McLaren | 12 | 8.7 |
2 over |
2 over
|
75
|
66 |
|
|
Peter Thornton | 19 | |||||
| Peter Burns | 21 | ||||||
|
2 |
Rick Butler | 12 | 12.0 | 4 over |
4 over
|
79 |
67 |
|
|
Mike Bell | 24 | |||||
| Steve Figgis | 30 | ||||||
| Rob Lowndes | 30 |
Team 1 won and team 2 paid for the drinks.
Day 2 Thursday 5 March 2026, The Vintage
This was an official Smergs event. Players with fewer than 19 strokes on the Smergs handicap scale added 4 shots and players with 19 or above added 6 shots. This is a 3 ball event with the winners of each 9 losing a shot and the overall winner losing 2 shots. In the event of a tie for any of the 3 comps a hole by hole count back will decide the winners. Thus a total of 4 shots were lost on the day. The winner received 9 NEW BOXED BALLS (thanks Nick) plus 3 from players. Winners of each 9 received 6. Longest Drive on the 10th won 2 balls, and the same for the NTP on 17. The winning team (aggregate score) received 2 balls each.
|
Team |
Player |
H'cap |
Front 9 S’ford |
Back 9 S‘ford |
Total S’ford |
|
1 |
Rick Butler | 16 | 16 | 14 | 30 |
|
83 points |
Peter Thornton | 25 | 7 | 15 | 22 |
|
|
Peter Burns | 27 | 21 | 10 | 31 |
|
2 |
Neil McLaren | 16 | 17 | 15 | 32 |
|
83 points |
Steve Figgis | 36 | 17 | 11 | 28 |
|
|
Rob Lowndes | 36 | 9 | 14 | 23 |
|
3 |
Roger Meadows | 22 | 18 | 13 | 31 |
|
87 points |
Tim Becker | 27 | 14 | 17 | 31 |
|
|
Mike Bell | 30 | 15 | 10 | 25 |
The Prizes:
| Overall | Neil McLaren | Front 9 | Peter Burns |
| Best team | Team 3 | Back 9 | Tim Becker |
| NTP 17th | Roger Meadows | Longest Drive 10th | Neil McLaren |
Day 3 Friday 6 March 2026, The Cypress Lakes CLASSIC
The signature event. The
team event was decided by the best score for first 6 holes, 2
best for next 6 holes and 3 best for last 6 holes. The last group dropped a
player on a rotation for calculation of their team score for the last 6
holes.
Handicaps for the day were Smergs updated from previous day plus 10% for 0
to 18 and plus 15% for the 19 and overs.
|
Team |
Player |
H'cap |
Front 9 S’ford |
Back 9 S‘ford |
Total S’ford |
|
1 |
Steve Urwin | 23 | 14 | 20 | 34 |
| 79 points | Tim Becker | 30 | 18 | 17 | 35 |
| Rob Lowndes | 41 | 17 | 14 | 31 | |
|
2 |
Rick Butler | 18 | 13 | 15 | 28 |
| 68 points | Roger Meadows | 25 | 14 | 13 | 27 |
|
|
Steve Figgis | 41 | 11 | 18 | 29 |
|
3 |
Neil McLaren | 15 | 18 | 16 | 34 |
|
74 points |
Peter Thornton | 29 | 10 | 13 | 23 |
| Peter Burns | 30 | 8 | 15 | 23 | |
|
|
Mike Bell | 34 | 15 | 13 | 28 |
The Prizes:
| Best Individual | Tim Becker | Front 9 Individual | Neil McLaren |
| Back 9 Individual | Steve Urwin | NTP 11th | Steve Figgis |
| Best Team | Team 1 | Longest Drive 9th | Steve Figgis |
The Photos
| The winner |
|
|
| The players |
 |
| The dinner at Oishii |
 |
