Amelia Garvey attended the Eagles Golfing Society of NZ annual Golfer of the Year Dinner at the Blenheim Community Centre on Wednesday evening 28th February 2017 and was presented with the trophy for the Golfer of the year for 2016.
The qualifying period ran from November 2015 to October 2016 and in this period Amelia achieved honours in the game of golf from representing NZ on the International scene to winning her first professional tournament (Autex Muriwai Open) becoming the second youngest women in NZ to achieve this goal behind Lydia Ko. There were five other nominations from golf provinces for this award within NZ, all who had credentials that in any other year would have seen anyone of them prevail.
Amelia became the forty ninth recipient and her name is now on the trophy alongside some of the best amateur golfers in NZ starting with Stuart Jones in 1967, Sir Bob Charles in 1968, followed by such names as Ted McDougal, Liz Douglas, Phillip Aickin, Phillip Tataurangi, Tim Wilkinson and Canterbury’s own Eddie Lee in 2002 followed by Danny Lee and Lydia Ko three time from 2001 to 2013.
Her charming personality won over many of the assemble Eagles and their partners, and she quickly became a favourite of all assembled,. Amelia was accompanied by her mother Beverley to the awards ceremony and together they made splendid ambassadors for the Canterbury Golf Association and its members.
The trophy was presented by National President Tom Whitaker who has had over the years along with Jason Tilley a place in Amelia’s development.
Amelia played at Marlborough Golf Club, prior to attending the awards dinner, Feb with the Eagles Executive and shot 75 gross off the men’s white tees carding a course record from these tees.
