Watson, who was a joint leader of the competition last year after shooting an opening round amateur course record of six under, will not represent the Hunter River District Golf Association at the event in 2009.

But 17-year-old Conner Walton, Hunter’s youngest team member, was positive the talented five-man squad could improve on last year’s showing.

“We have a pretty good team,” Walton said.

“It is a probably a bit stronger (than last year).”

The Kurri Kurri Golf Club member said the team – which consists of Walton, skipper Mark Hale (Branxton), Bryan Gulliver (Maitland), Scott Hayes (Muswellbrook) and Cameron Benkovic (Muswellbrook) – would need to be at its best to win the annual event.

“We would all have to shoot around even,” Walton said.

The scratch score of each player is added up and the best four from each day are added together for an overall tally.

Gulliver’s son Nick will partner up with Dylan Perry (Muswellbrook) and Nathan Waters (Scone) in the junior competition. Play starts on Saturday with the second and final round to be played on Sunday.