Both have already played for England at the Costa Ballena Quadrangular tournament in Spain last week, at the conclusion of which they headed off to Australia under England Golf’s annual arrangement with the Waverley Golf Club of Melbourne.
They will guest for the club’s team in the Victoria Golf Association’s Pennant Series of events, which begins on 18th March and runs until May, as well as competing in the major Australian amateur championships prior to that.
Loughrey, 21 (picture © Tom Ward), enjoyed a number of high finishes last year including equal third in the Darwin Salver, fourth in the Duncan Putter and tied fifth in the Berkshire Trophy. The latter performance helped him win the Scrutton Jug for the best aggregate from the Berkshire and Brabazon Trophies. He was also tied fourth in the Chiberta Grand Prix and equal sixth in the Biarritz Cup when representing the EGU.
Smith, 19, an AASE graduate of Filton College, has developed through their golfing programme. He has been the Intercollegiate Tour Players champion for the past two years and is an England Schools international. Apart from being a member of the County Championship-winning Wiltshire team at Ganton last year, he also finished fourth in the Faldo Series Grand Final at Lough Erne.
The link-up with the Waverley club, which has run for several years, will see Loughrey and Smith staying with club members. Two years ago, Todd Adcock from Sussex helped Waverley win the Pennant while Lincolnshire’s David Coupland was in the team that finished runners-up last year.
The Pennant Series is a club team competition which commenced in 1899 between five clubs. This year, 46 clubs will be involved divided into six divisions with promotion and relegation operating at the end of the series.
Matches are played each week at a different venue on a round robin basis in each division with each club represented by a seven man team.
