Keperra Country Golf Club again hosted the AIC Golf Championships in 2024. A beautiful, but also brisk, morning greeted the record number of students competing in this major event on the AIC Calendar. For the first time in AIC History, a full complement of 9 Secondary School teams that included the 8 AIC Member Colleges and AIC Guest College- Ambrose Treacy would compete. Joining the secondary students, 7 Primary students would also battle it out for AIC honours.

The course and the weather created some very challenging conditions for the golfers to negotiate. The freezing early morning conditions combined with frequent wind gusts would challenge even the most experienced of golfers.

The AIC Golf Championships include both team and individual events. The major team awards for the day are awarded to Gross Team Champion and the Net Team Champion. The Net Team Champion’s Shield is named after the long serving St Laurence’s staff member – Mr Gordon Balharry who was instrumental in the introduction of Golf into the AIC calendar and coordinated the Championships for many years.

The Balharry Shield competition was the closest on record with the top 5 schools only being separated by three shots. After the top 4 players scores from both Ambrose Treacy and St Peters were combined- the two schools could not be separated and were tied at the top of the leaderboard with a combined ‘Net’ score of 303. The tiebreak would be the score of the remaining member of the team with Ambrose Treacy claiming the shield. St Peters were ever so close in defending the shield they won in 2023. Iona finished in 3rd place with a score of 304- incredibly only one shot behind both Ambrose Treacy and St Peters.

The Gross Team Champion shield was again won by Iona College, defending the title won in 2023. Iona (325) claimed a 12-shot victory which was built upon by consistent rounds by their team members. Villanova (337) finished second, just in front of St Peters (339).

Iona- 2024 AIC Golf Team Gross Champions

The individual competition is always hotly contested across the three individual events- Secondary Gross, Secondary Net and Primary Net. A large number of students in the Association have single-digit handicaps. In the Individual Secondary Gross Competition, James Toscan (Iona) and Matthys Visser (SPC) could not be separated, both recording a 1-over par round of 73. Considering the incredibly challenging conditions these were excellent rounds of Golf from both boys. Tanna Catton (SPE) finished in third place, carding a 78.

The Individual Net competitions in both secondary and primary schools allows Golfers of different ‘Handicaps’ to compete against each other. This year the Top 10 Golfers in the Secondary School Net Competition were only separated by a total of 5 shots. Cooper Devin (ATC) won the Secondary Net competition with a net score of 69. James Toscan (Iona) finished second with 71 (net) and Lachlan Balfour (Padua) finished third with 72 (net).

The Primary Golfers produced a number of strong rounds including 3 primary golfers achieving net scores that would have claimed the top 3 positions in the secondary school competition. In another incredibly close competition Parker Honke (Padua) claimed the Primary Championship with a 65 (net). Jack Adams claimed second place, after a countback with Lochlan Butler (Padua-third place), both boys scoring 67 (net).

The Association would like to thank Keperra Country Golf Club for their incredible support of this event. Thank you to all staff who assisted on the day and to the parents who supported.

AIC Championship Results

Balharry Shield – AIC Secondary Net Champion Team

AIC Secondary Gross Champions

Individual Champions