The tournament will be played over three days with the 36-hole championship today and tomorrow and the foursomes event on Thursday.

About 107 players have entered with an average of 90 playing a day across the three divisions.

Telstra Countrywide are the major sponsors for the tournament, which has drawn golfers from Grafton, Merriwa, Tenterfield, Glen Innes, Guyra, Armidale, Inverell, Delungra, Uralla, Tamworth and Manilla.

Armidale’s Amanda Carr heads in as the defending champion and will be the lowest marker in the field.

Tenterfield’s Val Davidson is another expected to be in contention.

The home club’s hopes will be with club champion Pennie Glock.

Also taking a swing – in Division 3 – will be Armidale’s Anne Baillie.

Baillie is coming off a good couple of days at last week’s NSW Women’s Veterans Golf Association two-day tournament held in Armidale.

She teamed up with Cheryl Cooper to win the 4BBB event and was second in the individual stableford.

Thirty-two clubs from throughout NSW were represented in a field of 110.

Past president Pat Ellis had the honour of hitting the opening ball. 

It was a touch of deja vu for Ellis. Back in 1999 when she was president, Armidale was the first club outside metropolitan Sydney to host the tournament.

The 4BBB was played on the first day.

New England players took out the first three places with Baillie and Cooper scoring 43 points to finish ahead of Walcha’s Jenny Lisle and Barb Mulligan (42pts).

Kay Lennox and Sally Munro were third with 40 points on a count back from Beverley Everett (The Lakes) and Jan Holloway. 

In Wednesday’s individual stableford it seemed local knowledge helped with the three divisions won by locals.

Amanda Carr took out Division 1 with 34 points from club captain Kay Nash (32pts) points. 

In Division 2 Anne Tombs won on a count back from Barbara Fletcher (Cronulla) with 34 points.

The Division 3 honours went to Gretel Kempster (31pts) ahead of Baillie (28pts) and Nancy Freer (27pts).