Sanctuary Lakes’ junior pennant team took out the Victorian State Championships 2023 on November 26.
Across the state six teams of six players from six separate regions competed across spring to play off for the championship which came to its climax last Sunday.
Quan Liu, Max Peterson, Zane Nicholas, Sakura Yoshizawa, Yifan Wang and captain Luke Keenan made up the winning Sanctuary Lakes team.
After winning the region, the team went to the Southern Golf Club to take on Riversdale in the quarter finals. Last year the teams came across each other and Sanctuary Lakes lost by just a point.
In the quarter finals the sides tied three games each, forcing a play off hole. Sanctuary Lakes’ skipper Keenan was sent out and won the game, progressing his team into the semi finals.
In the semi against Medway at home, Sanctuary Lakes breezed into the final winning five games to one.
Then it was back to Sandhurst for the final against Woodlands. It was a familiar story for Sanctuary Lakes having to head back to a play off hole.
“We’d won three and we’d lost three and thought who are we going to send out for the play off hole, well there’s only probably one player that we would send out based on who won the quarter final for us,” team manager Greg Keenan said.
“So we sent Luke out for the sudden death play off and he monstered it.
“Sent a 305 yard drive down the fairway so it was an easy little chip on to the green for him.
“His opponent put his drive into a fairway bunker, so couldn’t get on to the green for two shots, he had to chip on, because the wind was behind him he blew it 10 feet behind the flag.
“Luke then had a pretty easy two-put to close out the match and then there were absolute scenes.
“Luke was the only player in the state that went through the finals series undefeated and we call him captain clutch.”
With the Australian Open taking place on the weekend the timing couldn’t have been better for the young golfers.
“They all love Min Woo Lee and Cam Smith obviously, it’s just a shame the open’s not in Melbourne this year all the kids went last year and it was a phenomenal event,” Greg Keenan said.
“It’s a golden era for Australian Golf.”
Keenan said the success of the junior team would not have been possible if it wasn’t for the support systems put in place by the club.
“There’s a young achievers foundation that supports them financially in terms of coaching and chips in for their membership fees,” he said.
“That’s a volunteer organisation that does fundraisers throughout the year, we wouldn’t be able to do it without the club and the young achievers foundation.”
