ONE of Bathurst Golf Club's most popular events will fire up members during the winter chill, as the Leeholme Cup arrives for another year.
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The Leeholme Cup is a handicap matchplay knockout tournament set to take place over the next five weekends as a field of 32 seeded players is whittled down to one champion.
While the cup isn't on the level of the club strokeplay or matchplay championships it is still one of the most sought after prizes on the calendar.
There's a bunch of exciting matchups for the opening round's play.
The anticipation has only been built up even further by the fact Sunday's opening round was postponed due to inclement weather.
With the round rescheduled for this Sunday club general manager Brad Constable is excited to see the outcomes for several of the 16 match ups.
"Our number one qualifier is Nathan Burke. Nathan only joined about a month or so again so he's hit the ground running really quick," he said.
"Nathan's playing Gerard McCormick, who was the last qualifier. Gerry's one of those blokes who could talk the legs off a stool so it will be interesting to see if Nathan can get him out of his head.
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"Another great match will be Rhys Frame against David Clews. Anthony Gibbs is up against Chris Boardman which will also be great. Gibbsy is a sponsor of the club, a really good supporter, and he's only really just getting into his Saturday golf."
There's exciting matchups for the remainder of the top five seeded players. Bob Pardy (4) goes up against Greg Murray and Kevin Arrow (5) plays Mick Locke.
With the handicap format the pressure will be put on those closer to scratch to progress through the tournament.
"An interesting one is Mike Stanford, who is a plus marker. He's been shooting the lights out. If he sticks to his current form he'll be hard to beat but because he's a plus marker he's giving away a fair few shots," Constable said.
"This has always been one of the premier matchplay events in the club and it's always a much sought after title."