The annual Howick Pennant Trip brings together past and present players and caddies for a great weekend away over King’s Birthday. The competition is centred around 3 rounds of golf played on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
For the past eight years, the trip has also featured a friendly but competitive Coots vs Bucks Ryder Cup competition, adding an extra layer of excitement to the weekend.
1. Bucks and Coots (23/24)
The Ryder Cup Competition players are allocated into teams via ballot and will remain in the same team for all future pennant trips (*exceptions will be made if numbers are uneven) All new players are divided by ballot. The 2026 teams are as follows:
Brenton(Capt)
Allen Hy
Wheaty
DanMantell
Duncan Barr
Fuzz
Geoff Sisson
James Ellis
Jeremy Cole
KelvynDrinkrow
Snakey(Capt)
Evan Lindsey
Darracott
Lee Bevan
MattConnolly
Vincent Chan
Brett Proctor
BALLOT
Dicko
Lukey
Ted
Tere Brunton
Steph
Kurt
Quilty
2. Agenda + Courses / Accomodation –
FRIDAY:
Hamilton Golf Club (Lodge Real Estate Open – Entry fee $70)
● Scramble + Club Open = double whammy, 11:00am (shotgun start)
● Head back to our accomodation after the round (Ibis Hamilton)
● Friday night – organise your own dinner
SATURDAY:
Te Awamutu Golf Club (Green Fees $35)
● Scramble, 10:30am tee off
● Saturday night – Gather for the Calcutta draw – organise your own dinner
SUNDAY:
Walton Golf Club (Green Fees $45)
● Scramble + Calcutta, 10:45am tee off
● Everyone to wear any past Pennant uniform (mandatory)
● Prizegiving to be given out after the round at the course (to accomodate for those not staying the Sunday)
● Sunday evening – Group dinner
MONDAY:
● Head back home
ACCOMMODATION: IBIS Hamilton Tainui, 18 Alma Street, 07 859 9200
3. Alan Larsen Trophy –
Players are also playing for the prestigious Alan Larson Trophy, which will go to the player with the best combined stableford from Saturday's and Sunday's scores.
🏆 2025 Winner – Vincent Chan
🏆 2024 Winner – Nick Botica
4. Competitions –
There's a lot of competitions for the weekend, a scramble for each round, the book, roomies and the Ryder cup so if you're new to the trip, have a read of the Competition page or a chat with any past attendees and they'll fill you in!
PENNANT SEASON 2026
HGC FACEBOOK PENNANT PAGE:
To keep up to date with current updates on HGC pennants – check out our Facebook Pennant Page (and don't worry it should be public so you shouldn't need to log in or have a facebook account).
HGC Facebook Pennant Page.
2025 PENNANT TRIP – TAURANGA
1. Daily Scramble
Each round (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) will have it's own stableford scramble with best gross, 2's and 4 pointers, closest to the pin and drawn pairs.
2. The Book
$5 a pick; This is betting on who will have the best combined stableford from the Saturday & Sunday rounds (effectively the Alan Larsen Trophy winner, followed by the 2nd placer).
You must pick the winner and then who you think is going to be second, it's not always second it can be the next highest placed finisher if no one has the correct order. PICKS CLOSE BEFORE the first group tees off on Saturday (all attending players are allocated TWO FREE PICKS as part of the scramble money).
3. Roomies
Two man teams based on your room mate. Best combined stableford over the 3 days. Single, not staying at the accomodation and 3 man rooms will mean some players won't actually be rooming with their roommate. We will sort this and tell you who your roomie is for the weekend.
4. Ryder Cup
FRIDAY – pairings selected by captains. 1 point per match, Half point for halved match. Match played as 4BBB with shots taken off the low marker.
SATURDAY – captains to decide pairings in private and playing order. 1 point per match, Half point for halved match. Match played as combined stableford (per hole)
SUNDAY – singles, each team puts players name in the hats (one for each team) leading team has name drawn first then alternate. The players drawn gets to pick which player from the opposing team they want to matchplay for the round.
5. Calcutta
Has a tab of it's own. Click the horse icon up top (3rd one).
The format of the “Calcutta” takes quite a bit of explanation – which is usually only fully understood once you’ve been involved in a couple of them – but below is an attempt to explain it as simply as possible.
1. Tickets given out
As an attending player you will receive 2 tickets for the Calcutta – if you wish you can form a syndicate amongst your peers (max 3 people), to increase the chances of winning and spreading the cost.
2. Horses drawn out
The first raffle ticket drawn out the hat is the 'Drawer' of the first pair of golfers – he will elect to matchplay an opposing member of the other team. e.g. Nick(Bucks) gets drawn out, and calls out Greg(Coots), Vincent(Coots) gets drawn out next and calls out Brenton(Bucks) etc. This will continue down until the first column is complete. Repeat for the 2nd column.
3. Horse pairings complete
All horses have now been paired. The rankings for the best 'horse pairings' are showing in the ranking column. The raffle tickets sales sets up the base 'pool'.
4. Owner of horses drawn out
Now's the time to get lucky. Tickets are now drawn for each horse pairing to find the owners. The winner will pick the next 'Drawer' out of the hat – this will continue until all the horses have been drawn. Then there will be about 10-15 minutes allocated for syndicates/bidders to decide on options for the upcoming auction.
5. Auction time
Next comes the auction when each pair of golfers (horses) are auctioned to the highest bidder (hence the benefit of a syndicate – remember max syndicates of 3).
Whoever wins the auction for the pair of golfers (P1 + P2) is known as the 'Buyer' and pays whatever their final bid was. Half that money gets added to the 'Pool' and the other half goes to the owner(s).
You can bid for horses that you 'Drew' from the initial raffle draw – if you win that auction you retain 'ownership' of the horses but it effectively only costs you half the price of your bid (which goes into the pool), the other half going back to you as the owner(s).
Once all horses have been auctioned then the overall pool total is known and the value of prizes to the horses that win Calcutta.
6. Sunday Calcutta
Now we play – everyone plays on Sunday and
the best combined stableford scores from the ‘horse pairings’ from Sunday's round will determine the winner of the ‘Calcutta'! There are no countbacks – equal score means prizes will be shared.
Note: It is traditional that the winner of the Calcutta (the 'Buyer') to pay each of the horses (players) 5% of their winnings, or else you may be called a manus.
1. Daily Scramble
2. Alan Larsen Trophy / The Book
3. Roomies
4. Ryder Cup
5. Calcutta
