MEN'S GOLF
By Short Putt
The weekend produced sunny days after chilly starts which encouraged the Forbes golfers delay their starts but enjoy the day. This approach produced some good scores.
The competition on Saturday was the 4BBB Stroke and Handicap Championships, sponsored by Glen Yarra Ag. The field of 61 players were evenly spread through the day and were all keen to do well. The good scores were stand outs but players still had difficulty reading the ‘borrow’ on both the greens and fairway.
The winners of the 4BBB Scratch Champs were the pair of Peter Dawson and Steve Betland who finished with a scratch 66. They were ‘chalk and cheese’ in their individual scores but Ecky was on hand to fill the gap when Steve had a stumble, for example on the 6th where Ecky chimed in with a birdie.
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Scratch Runners-up were the pair of Archie Quirk and John Betland. They managed a scratch 69 and nabbed the spot on count back from Caleb Hanrahan and Tim West. Archie and John had similar partnership to the winners with Archie starting well with a par on the 1st. But thereafter it was mainly the ‘tall’ John making the score ahead of the ‘short’ Archie.
The Handicap Winners were Bruce Chandler teamed with Wayne O’Neill. Their score of 61 nett snuck in ahead of the next best towards the end of the day. Bruce and Wayne shared the scoring but stumbled on one hole, the 2nd, where they both carded double bogey. Wayne saved one of his better shots to score a hole-in-one on Sunday.
The Handicap Runners-up were Hamish Steele-Park and David Bernardi. They were quite pleased with their nett 62 and quietly confident of being in the prize ring. Hamish provided most of the scores on the front-9 but David stepped up to carry the back-9. A better score than double-par on the 9th may have won them the main prize.
The ball sweep went to 68 nett on count back, going to: 64 – B Slack-Smith/D Earl; 65 -H Callaghan/B Ashton; 66 – C Alley/W Judge, P Pymont/R Smith; 67 – J Coulthurst/D Bayley; 68 – C Banks/K Tyne, C Hanrahan/T West, T Griffiths/P Kay. There was a lone visitor being Michael Wood (Dubbo GC). He was pared with Adam Andrews and enjoyed a chat through their round. Mike managed a good individual score but Adam was very rusty after a long lay-off and did not help much.
The NTP’s went to: 9th – P Dawson; 18th – H Steele-Park. Neither of them managed to convert for a ‘2’. The 2’s were quite scarce despite the good pace of the greens, with one each scored on the 3rd, 9th and 18th. Early starter Hamish scared everybody off on the 18th, but it took almost the whole field before Ecky got inside Brett Slack-Smith on the 9th.
The 3rd hole Super-Pin went to Dan Bayley who fired his shot to a comfortable 268 cm. Unfortunately, he did not convert for a ‘2’. His group were the last in the field and once again bettered the early starter in Brett Slack-Smith. The rest of the field had serious troubles and did not feature.
While 2’s were quite scarce ‘eagles’ seemed to pop up everywhere. Caleb Hanrahan kept his game going with an eagle on the 12th. He played a handy drive down the fairway, then plopped his approach shot into the hole on the second bounce.
Two eagles were scored on the 15th hole. Both of the Betland boys managed easy putts for their score. And both benefitted on their individual scores. The eagle helped John to a 34 on the back-9 after a bogey and a couple of birdies, but Steve was one shot better with 33 after a birdie and the rest pars.
It takes a lot for our ‘plus’ handicappers to get themselves at the top of the leader board. Steve (+2) finished on nett 69, with Caleb (+2) on nett 72 and John (+4) on nett 74. So you can imagine how well they played to earn a prize.
No matter how good the ‘guns’ are there are always stories from other players. Jacob Reid and Mark Simmonds both struggled all day because they could not find their swing. And then others like Adam Andrews (a 10 on the 12th), Pat Murphy (a 12 on the 6th) and Dave Bernardi (11 on the 7th) had too many swings.
The water caused a problem for some players. Stevie G plonked his ball into the water on both the 4th and 15th with one of those being near new. Kim Herbert attempted a miracle recovery on the 15th. His ball was stuck in the bank, but quite dry, on the green side of the water. He used his ‘3-wood’ to blast out but only succeeded in skying the ball which then plonked into the water behind him.
The best story of the day came on the last hole. One group had just finished putting out and climbed into the carts preparing to leave. One of them heard a funny sound at the back of the cart and got out to look around.
The next group from the tee came running up, one of whom proclaimed “My ball is in your bag”. Of course ‘b-s’ was the reply but the owner kindly zipped the pockets up, took out all the clubs and up-ended the bag. Out popped the ball! It had slam dunked into the bag with barely a whisper.
It is pleasing to report that Tim West managed to get up and down for his par, and nobody was hurt in the incident.
Reggie Murray tried to win by himself but without a partner it was very hard. He did have a quiet round though. Another quiet moment was had by Jeff House. His tee shot on the 12th skied well right and finished among the trees closest to the 7th fairway. With nobody else in sight he was lonely but did manage to join his group on the 12th green.
Here is the news:
The Wallace Cup has had a faltering start but hopefully things will pick up once the golfing commitments ease. To date the winners have been Bruce Chandler over Archie Quirk, Cam McMillan over Anthony Alley and Brad Ashton over Dave Quirk. More matches in the current round will be played this week.
We give hearty encouragement to Archie Quirk who is scheduled to play in some G-NSW Junior events over the next few weeks. He plays in the G-NSW Junior Championships at Bateman’s Bay and Moruya over 72-holes. And then heads to Shelley Beach for the Greg Chalmers Junior Masters. Pleasing to see the developing game in Archie under the guidance of Head Pro Will.
This coming weekend any social play will be limited as the Mens Foursomes Championships will be played over two days. If you want a social round it is best to ring the Pro Shop first (6851 1554).
H/Pro Will advises of a Taylor-Made Equipment Demo day, scheduled for Wed 9 July. Contact him in the Pro Shop if you want to book a time to try out their new stuff.
Do not forget to pay your membership renewal. If you have not yet received it please contact the Pro Shop and leave a message for the Secretary.
It is crystal ball time:
This Saturday and Sunday, 28 & 29 June is the Mens Foursomes Championship, sponsored by FINDEX (Forbes). The Ladies have a Monthly Medal on Saturday. Sunday has the usual Stableford Medley comp scheduled for those not competing in the Foursomes.
VETS GOLF
West Wyalong golfer Barry Green stole the show with a hole-in-one at the Lachlan Valley Veterans monthly 18-hole competition played at Condobolin last week.
The shot of the day was on the 150 metre par three 17th hole where Green lobbed his shot on the green before it checked right to find the cup.
Forty-four players contested the day where count-backs were required in both grades and 39 stableford points the top scores.
Local Ian Myers took the honors in A grade defeating an unlucky Kim Herbert from Forbes, while B grade was a Condo one-two with Dennis Norris getting the nod from Paula Fiji the only lady in the field.
In the teams event - the best three scores from each club - Condo also dominated returning 117 points to Forbes' 113. Parkes was next on 97, Grenfell 90 and West Wyalong on 88.
The A grade nearest-to-pins were won by Condo's Graham Taylor (sixth hole) and Steve Beattie (11th), West Wyalong's Barry Green won the all-grades on the third hole, while no B graders scored on the 17th.
Ball winners from Parkes and Forbes were: 37 points - Ross William and Alan Rees (F); 35: Nym Dziuba (P) and Niel Duncan (F); 33 - Ken Sanderson and Don McKeowen (F) and Gordon Pritchard (P); 32: Peter Grayson (F).
Another highlight of the day and always a hit with visitors was the tasty morning tea provided by the lady members of the Condobolin club which had everyone raring to go despite the chilly conditions. As most players commented – ddddelicious.
This week the twin-towns competition returns to Parkes. Registrations from 9:15 for a 10am shot-gun start. Last Tuesday the weather was great for 12 holes of social play where Neil Herbert was best with 26 points from Alex Mackinnon who can mix his game to produce his best beaten by one.
While the golf wasn’t tops for some of the 14 who played they did however enjoy their break over coffee where the problems of the world took preference to golf. Be part of it any week, ball toss at 9am, all invited.
