The first official competition of the season, Malta vs The Rest, was played recently at Marsa.

Members eagerly vie for the honour of taking part in this competition... 10 golfers for each team are automatically selected from the previous season’s Order of Merit. They are joined by two wild cards chosen by the captains.

This year, Kenneth Micallef was Malta’s captain and Ian Macpherson skippered The Rest.

The competition format is similar to that of the Ryder Cup. Day One is foursomes, Day Two is 4 Ball-better-Ball and Day Three is all 12 matches head-to-head.

There is always tension in the air with all players eager to win encounters.

Day One ended with Malta winning three matches and The Rest two. One match was halved, giving Malta a 7-5 lead. Malta bettered this score on Day Two by winning four from six matches. The ‘home’ team went 15-9 ahead with 24 points still up for grabs on the final day.

Peter Satariano chalked up an excellent Day Two score of 67, one below the course par.

Day Three started in glorious sunshine with Lew Collins playing club champion Andy Borg. Collins did remarkably well as, after the 16th hole, he was two ahead with two to play, a near certain win.

On both holes Borg drove into the green-side bunker but quite remarkably on each occasion he was able to chip out to hole his put for a birdie, thus winning both holes and halving this match.

Another feature of the competition was that a father and son were both playing for The Rest, Andy Holland and his son Danny. Also, Luca Caruana made his debut for Malta at the age of 15 and it was one that he should be proud of.

Malta beat The Rest convincingly on Day Three – the final score being 32-16.

The trophy is a very handsome Wilkinson Sword of which only seven were ever made. It was presented to the Malta captain.

Since the first edition in 1973, The Rest have won the title 14 times, Malta 21 and on three occasions the honours were even.