Now and then, spring in Melbourne does deliver. Tuesday, September 10, was one of those rare occasions. Mostly sunny, no wind – perfect conditions for our 6th Annual Chamber and Allianz Golf Day at the Kingston Heath Golf Club in Cheltenham. With 14 teams out on the greens, the Golf Day 2019 was one of our biggest golfing events yet.
Kingston Heath Golf Club has hosted numerous national championships, including nine Australian Opens, two Australian Masters and the 2016 World Cup of Golf. The highly-rated course, which will host the men’s Australian Golf Championships 2020, provided the perfect backdrop for a day of networking and fun for our nearly 70 guests. Kingston Heath is currently ranked number 20 in the world and number 11 outside of the United States and is regarded as one of Australia's finest golf courses.
At registration, every player received an exclusive Allianz golf shirt and event bag. Before the start of the game, the participants enjoyed a light lunch in the Kingston Heath bar area. After some networking, a group picture and team pictures were taken. At 12.30pm, the teams then made their way to their starting holes.
To keep concentration levels high for the challenging course and different competitions, we made sure that our golfers were well hydrated and fed with snacks, kindly provided by the Hophaus beverage cart.
After a good five hours on the course, the teams and dinner guests started to head back to the clubhouse for pre-dinner drinks at 5.30pm. Our hungry players then made their way to the beautiful dining room where, after a welcome by Alexandra Voss, our Executive Director, they enjoyed a delicious barbeque dinner. The teams had the chance to chat and review the successful day over food and drinks. After dinner James Stack, CEO of Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty thanked the players for a great day and handed over to the Chamber for the long-awaited award ceremony. Like every year, the best three teams would receive a prize, as well as two winners who won the ‘longest drive’ and ‘closest to the pin’ competition, followed by a prize raffle.
Some great prizes were provided to the winners thanks to our Platinum Sponsor Allianz, Hole Sponsor Audi, and Beverage Cart Sponsor Hophaus as well as Faber.
And the winners were:
1st Place (prize sponsored by Allianz)
with a score of 56.75: Daniel Anderson (Linde Material Handling), Rolf Drohn (EY), Alicia Haesslein (Hall & Wilcox), and Josh Naffine (Linde Material Handling)
2nd Place (prize sponsored by Audi)
with a score of 58.675: David Crawford (Qatar Airways), Gregg Fowler (Henning Harders), Toby Jarrett (Jarrett Manufacturing), and Max Torkar (Deutz Australia)
3rd Place (prize sponsored by the German Chamber)
with a score of 58.875: Jonathan Allen (Aon), Alistair Burley (Aon), Stewart Jonson (Aon), and Scott Milligan (Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty)
The winning team received a golf trophy and a $100 JB Hi-Fi voucher each, sponsored by Allianz. The second team took home a golf pack, sponsored by Audi. It included an exclusive golf ball gift box, a driver head cover, and a golf umbrella. The players of the third team were handed a set of Kingston Heath whiskey glasses.
While Chaz Doris won the closest-to-the-pin competition, he graciously passed on the amazing hamper and $200 dinner voucher his very own venue Hophaus had provided. We drew another winner, and Mark Hammerschlag from Moore Stephens was lucky enough to claim the prize.
The ‘longest drive’ competition was won by Oliver Ward from Marsh, who will be taking an Audi Q8 for a drive for a long weekend, together with some golf balls and a golf umbrella, provided by Audi Australia.
For those players who did not make it onto the winners’ podium, there was the chance to win more fantastic prizes in the raffle. The first prize went to Paul Close from Marsh. Paul took home the ‘perfect pencil’, kindly donated by Faber Castell. The second prize went to Sara Walker from Hophaus – a selection of amazing wines provided by our Premium Partner Qatar Airways, while Jason Brown from CYP Design & Construction Joint Venture received two tickets to attend the AHK Ambassador’s Gala Dinner in Sydney on October 18.
We would like to thank all of our sponsors and Kingston Heath Golf Club for helping us make the 6th German-Australian Chamber & Allianz Golf Day such a big success. We would especially like to thank our main sponsor Allianz for their outstanding continued support over the last years. Our appreciation also extends to our hole sponsors Audi, Linde Material Handling, SNP Australia and UVEX for supporting the event, and for supplying our guests with fantastic goodies for our Allianz event bags. Another special ‘thank you’ goes out to our beverage cart sponsor Hophaus and our in-kind sponsors Qatar Airways and Faber Castell.
Thank you to everyone who attended, for the fantastic sportsmanship and friendly competition displayed on the greens, and to the wonderful staff at Kingston Heath Golf Club.
We hope to see you all next year!