2021 Simpson Cup Champions - Kooyonga Golf Club

2021 Simpson Cup Champions - Kooyonga Golf Club2021 Simpson Cup Champions - Kooyonga Golf Club

Kooyonga has won the 2021 Simpson Cup recently by defeating The Vines of Reynella 4.5 matches to 2.5 played at Glenelg Golf Club.

The win is the 34th top grade men’s title for Kooyonga and first since going undefeated in 2015.

The Vines were gunning for their first Simpson Cup after 26 seasons at the highest level since first competing in 1967 as Marino Golf Club when the competition expanded from four to eight teams.

Kooyonga were the dominant team all season winning 6 of 7 minor round matches and progressed to the decider with a 6-1 defeat of The Grange in the semi-final.

When the sides met in round four, it was Kooyonga who prevailed 4.5-2.5 and they proved too strong once again despite a gallant effort from The Vines.

The contest was tight, especially early, with The Vines edging ahead in a some key matches.

Corey Apthorpe 3&1 and Alex Curtin 7&6 then bagged wins for The Vines while Joel Durnford 4&2 and Freddie Cassell 4&3 locked in two matches for Kooyonga.

Lower order matches were going down to the wire and when number 7 Geoff Brennan secured a win on the 19th and Will Somerfield on the 18th Kooyonga had prevailed.

Somerfield was delighted to secure the win especially for some of the newcomers.

“It’s good to win and share it with the boys. We have a few guys who hadn’t played Simpson Cup for Kooyonga yet so to share the win with those boys this year is great. We’ve got a good young group, we’ve invested a bit of time into so to start seeing some rewards is good.” Somerfield said.

“We’ve got a strong team, I wouldn’t say dominant, we probably won all the close ones which makes it look a little bit more like we have been in control, but overall we had a couple of tight games to finish the season and managed to win them. We were pretty confident again today, it got tight again but we managed to find a way to win.”

Kooyonga Team Manager David Fraterman was also elated with the result.

“The boys were challenged today, The Vines came out firing, they got their noses in front early on and had couple of really big leads. It was looking a bit dodgy for us and after about 6 or 7 holes we were 2-5 down”. Fratermen said.

“Then the boys started turning it around got our noses in front and a couple of lads closed out their games really well. The number 6 and 7 games were pivotal. Geoff won down 19 and Will won on 18 and I think that sort of swayed things our way. Fraterman added.

“I’m really proud of the boys, we had a great season won 8 out of 9 matches and lost a very tight one 4-3. I think the win is just deserts. We had great support from our two PGA Professionals John Corbett and Daniel Blackwell who really put in a lot of work and also John Anderson the Assistant Manager as well.”

With Covid forcing the cancellation of season 2020, Kooyonga were a fitting winner of season 2021.

In other Men’s Finals:

A2 - Tea Tree Gully 5.5 defeated Blackwood 1.5

Bonnar Cup - The Grange 4.5 defeated Glenelg 2.5

B2 - Royal Adelaide 4.5 defeated Flagstaff Hill 2.5