The two-day contest, which included 4BBB and singles match play, came down to the last group on Sunday.

Newcastle's Dave Alexander, playing as the No.1, beat Luke Waters 2 and 1 and leading junior Jacob Dundas sunk a pressure putt to finish square with Corey Lamb.

Trailing 4-2 entering Sunday, Newcastle, comprised of six seniors and six juniors, finished the stronger to win 9.5 to 8.5.

Victory in the PR West Trophy, followed wins over Central Coast (12-4) at Belmont and the Lower North Coast (10-0) at Horizons.

Next is a two-day clash against ACT/Monaro at Yowani Country Club on September 14-15. The match is part of the David Wood Trophy series which also features Illawarra and the Central Coast.

"It was always going to be close against the Hunter Rivers boys," Newcastle District secretary and team manager Rod Carruthers said. "We had a draw with them last year at Toronto and this year it went down to the final group on the final hole. It was outstanding golf. "

Hunter River captain Hayden Gulliver produced the highlight of Saturday, with a hole in one at the 153m par-three eighth. The ace was the first on the redesigned layout and helped steer Gulliver and Harry Atkinson to a 3 and 2 win over Mick Coutman and Harry Cleare in the 4BBB.

The other four-ball winners for Hunter River were Clayton Small and Mitch Bodycotte and Joshn Knott and Ethan Van Zyl. Two matches finished square.

"After Saturday, watching the body language of the Hunter Rivers boys, I was a little fearful," Carruthers said. "But our boys came good over night and performed very well."

Hunter River started the singles well with wins in the lower order by Blake Palmer over Luke Ferreier (1 up) and Camran Walton over Greg McMillan (2 and 1).

However, Newcastle then took control with win to Chris Turnbull, Ben Hillard, Mick Coutman and Alexander (seniors) and juniors Celeb Bromley, Jake Riley turning the tide.

Scone golf course, which has nine holes with 18 different tees, re-opened in May after a $4 million development to allow a road bypass to be built.

"The players and officials were very impressed with the layout and the condition of the course," Carruthers said. "There are separate tees for each hole which gives each hole a whole different character. It feels like you are playing 18 holes of golf rather than two nines. It is in great nick. No-one had a bad word to say about the place."

* Charlestown gun Blake Windred received a timely confidence boost after finishing second at the Pacific Coast Amateur in Alberquerque last week.

Windred shot rounds of 66,68,68,66 to finish at 16 under. Incredibly, he was four shots behind winner Quade Cummins (67,66,65,66).

"I was very happy with the result," Windred told Down the Fairway. "Quade had his A-game this week and was just too good."

Windred drained an eagle and 20 birdies over the 72 holes despite "not hitting it great".

"My ball striking wasn't where it needed to be this week but my chipping and putting defiantly made up for that," he said. "I was very pleased to be able to grind out a very low score even without my best ball striking. I'm in a great space mentally and am going to prepare best I can for this week for the Western Amateur."

The Western Amateur, which has four qualifying rounds of stroke after which the top 16 progress to match play, starts on Tuesday and is one of the main lead-up events to the US Amateur.

Windred will play the first two rounds in an all-Australian group alongside Nathan Barbieri, Jordan Gardner and Jack Thompson.

* Pacific Dunes head professional Jamie Hook will defend his NSW/ACT Professional Championship at Cromer Golf Course on Tuesday.

The event, which is for PGA members who don't hold a tour card, is a qualifier for the national final to be held over 54 holes at Hamilton Island in November.

Hook beat Jonathan Painter in a play-off to win the state event last year before finishing sixth in the final.

Clayton Bridges and Ethan Morris are also teeing up at Cromer where the top 12 earn a trip to Hamilton Island.

"It was great up there last year and it would be nice to go back," Hook said.

Hook finished second at the $40,000 Wagga Wagga pro-am in April but hasn't played much tournament golf in recent weeks.

"The game is not too bad for the amount of golf I have been playing," Hook said.

The Newcastle trio played a practice round at Cromer on Monday.

"From what I know, Cromer is pretty tight," Hook said. "If you can make a bunch of pars, I would think somewhere around two over would be a chance of making it to the national final."

* The OC Colley Cup, which is a qualifying event for B and C grade pennants, will be held at Hawks Nest and Shortland Waters on Sunday.

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