Neil Duncan Invitational
Posted on: 29 May
The Neil Duncan Invitational was contested on Saturday 27 May with Victoria Golf Club winning the 77th playing of the event.
David Brophy and Peter O’Donahoo representing Victoria Golf Club finished on plus 10 to win comfortably from the other invited clubs. The leading Yarra Yarra Pair was Paul Ryan and Ed Thian who had a wonderful score of plus 11.
The friendship and camaraderie was evident throughout the event with many of the visiting golfers seeing the course for the first time since the renovations and were suitably impressed.
In 1946, the Committee of Yarra Yarra decided to invite 13 fellow Victorian Golf Association (now known as Golf Victoria) clubs to play in the inaugural Yarra Yarra Invitation Cup, to be played as a four ball best ball par event.
Each club was asked to send two representatives to be paired with two Yarra Yarra members, who became their hosts for the day. Only the invited clubs played for the Invitation Cup.
As Yarra Yarra has always been referred to as the ‘friendly club’, an important aspect of the invitation to participate in this Invitation Cup was to create a friendly interchange between the ordinary playing members, rather than elite playing members of the various clubs, with the view to maintaining old ties and further developing goodwill.
The reason behind the 13 clubs invited were those competing in VGA Pennant in 1924 when Yarra Yarra was first accepted into the ranks of senior Pennant in the Victorian Golf Association, the first new club admitted in more than 20 years!
Yarra Yarra had initially been refused because of a perceived lack of quality in its Pennant team. Apart from Yarra Yarra, other clubs such as Kingston Heath, Woodlands, and Commonwealth had been agitating for full representation for some time.
Once Yarra Yarra achieved this breakthrough, other clubs were also elevated over the next few years and in a wider sense, their acceptance reflected the growth in golf and the fact that the game was no longer the exclusive preserve of the upper middle class.
As the original Geelong Golf Club can no longer participate, there are now 12 of the 13 Clubs originally invited competing for the Cup:
Commonwealth Heidelberg Huntingdale
Kew Kingston Heath Metropolitan
Northern Peninsula Kingswood Riversdale
Royal Melbourne Woodlands Victoria
The VGA were also invited to field a team, however it was not until 1992 that they were allowed to win the trophy, and they did!
In 1953 Yarra Yarra decided to nominate one of its pairs to officially represent its Club and to compete for the Invitation Cup. With a home course advantage, Yarra Yarra won it that year, however it was realised that was not the intent, so the practice of Yarra Yarra competing was discontinued and the Yarra Yarra members reverted to their traditional role as hosts.
Neil Duncan was a member of the Yarra Yarra Committee from 1950 to 1952 and then Captain in 1953 and 1954.
He was a tireless worker for his Club and was a strong advocate of the Invitation Cup, so after his death in 1963, the Committee changed the name of the Yarra Yarra Invitation Cup to the Neil Duncan Yarra Yarra Invitation Cup, in recognition of his valued contribution.
