With plenty of spectators to follow the top ten players around the morning got off to a very timid first hole that had to be decided with a chip off between four players. The result was that Chris Thorndike fell by the wayside after getting a start courtesy of Paddy Byrne who was away in Melbourne teaching Tiger Woods a few tricks of the trade.
At the second hole Walter Bortoletto found the trees all the way down the fairway, but hung in enough to force another chip off with Denys Tobin. Neither golfer made the green in their first attempt so a replay was called for with a result going to Walter and Denys dropping out.
Hitting off the third Walter again found the trees not too friendly and finished his run. From the fourth tee Kerry McCoy who was out driving the field on the first three holes found the water and could not recover enough to stay in the contest.
At the newly designed fifth hole Neil Duffus found the bunker and he needed to win the chip off with Johnny Walker to stay in the contest, Johnny Walker getting the better of this to stay in the contest.
On the sixth tee John Hopkins found the bushes in front a little too close but recovered with a shot to the green all would be proud of, only to have his putter let him down and finished his run for the round.
Over the dam on the seventh hole proved to be too much for Steve Cumming so ending his day’s golf.
Come the eighth hole and Ted Beaton was in the box seat after a great drive onto the green, and all would have bet Ted would go onto the last hole. Not so, a most uncharacteristic putt from Ted led to his downfall and finished his day.
With only two men remaining, Bernie Dugdale and Johnny Walker fought out the last hole with good drives from the tee.
Johnny hit a second shot that any golfer would be satisfied with to put an end to Bernie's day and close out the game.
Presentation was held on the deck with the sponsor for the eight month event Glenn Crow on hand to deal out the vouchers to the respective winners. All agreed that the event would be bigger and better next year.
Saturday’s Monthly Medal round was contested by 123 golfers who all appreciated the sponsorship of Pat and Terry Johnson with Terry on hand to present the vouchers to the respective winners and runners-up.
After an electrical storm overnight that did not produce too much rain conditions were ideal for the contest and suited Dave Maloney with a round of 76/64 to take out A-grade from Peter Drane (South West Rocks) 78/66 with Ian Vidler receiving the second runners-up voucher 73/67.
B-grade had to wait for the last group to get a winner and that was Bernie Dugdale 79/64 from Roger Waters 81/67 and Peter Miller 84/68.
In the lower grade you always expect a runaway score but we had two with Wayne Cheetam and John Patterson both carding a 62 nett but Wayne was the better in the countback 82/62 and ‘Patto’ 93/62 .
Neville Stewart was next with 90/65 from Allan O’Brien 87/65.
Allan O’Brien made sure of his nearest-the-pin with an ace on the fifth hole. Bruce Berry and John Hopkins also took out nearest-the-pins with Peter Drane getting the money shot making his drive up from South West Rocks well worth while.
Ball rundown went to 71 c/b with a CCR for the round at 69.
Single stableford on Thursday was contested by 121 men and 11 ladies making a field of 123 with two divisions for the round.
Tim Bennett of Sawtell took out the first division. Playing off a handicap of three, scored 42 points to put Dave Maloney in to the runners-up position with a card of 41.
Adam Woods on 40 took the third voucher from Geoff McCann, Chris Thorndike and Terry Johnson all with rounds of 40 points.
Division 2 went to Brenda Fane with a round of 40 points from Ray Shelly getting the better of the countback with Chris Stone getting the other voucher with a score of 37.
Nearest-the-pins Eddy Penrose getting away with two, John Slade,Ted Beaton, Rick Barlow, all taking out one with Stephen Ball winning the money shot.
Ball rundown for the round went to 32c/b with the CCR recorded at 69 for the round.
Next Saturday’s round will be Stableford as will Thursday’s before a four-ball round on November 28.
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