MURRAY DOWNS MEN’S
BEN Smith came out on top with the best score of the day from last Saturday’s stableford competition played at Murray Downs.
Smith, playing from his daily handicap of 20, recorded a handicap breaking score of 40 points, with 24 of them scored on the back nine holes, to get over the line ahead of Grant McNees (9), who finished with the same score of 40 points.
With this score, Smith was the best in Division 3, while McNees took out the Division 1 honours.
Runner-Up in Division 3 was Damian Mangiameli (22) with an impressive 39 points and Matthew Collins (10) was equally impressive with his 39 points to be runner-up in Division 1.
The winner in Division 2, with 37 points, was Tim Free (15), who was closely followed by Bob Burns (16) on 36 points.
Scores of 34 points and more were required in the ball rundown, while the nearest the pins were taken out by Ian Read on the 2nd, Anthony “Maxie” Carroll on the 5th, Tim Free on the 11th and Bob Burns on the 15th.
The 5th hole is proving to be rather easy for Anthony “Maxie” Carroll, as he actually holed out there for a hole-in-one on the previous Saturday, which I completely overlooked. Please accept my apologies Maxie.
The course was extremely busy over the last weekend and this was no more evident than on Sunday, when there were a large number of golfers taking advantage of the excellent weather conditions, with the vast majority being green fee players.
In the daily stableford competition, Ricky Pickering (18) had an excellent day, recording 41 points from his handicap of 18 to take out Division 2, with Greg Armsden (19) getting the runner-up prize with 39 points.
In Division 1, the count-back system came into play to separate Jonathon Hirst (10) and Gary Blencowe (11) when both players came in with scores of 38 points each, with Pickering coming out on top and for the other golfers, 33 points was the magical number required to get a ball. The NTPs went to Brian Hinton, Darryl Domaille, Rob O’Brien & David McClelland on holes 2, 5, 11 & 15 respectively.
Golfers are reminded the greens have had their annual coring, so there will be sand spread over them to assist with filling the core holes. This is a major required, annual maintenance program, to maintain the greens in the excellent condition that we are used too.
On Tuesday of this week, because of the green’s renovations, the daily competition was restricted to playing nine holes on the back side of the course, where John Tripodi found the conditions to his liking, to compile 22 points, from his handicap of 17. He was closely followed by John Webb (16) with 21 points, ahead of Murray Conn (28) also with 21 and Ray Holdsworth (31) on 20 points.
All golfers and members are reminded of the AGMs for both the men’s and ladies golf committees will be held this coming week.
The men’s AGM will be held on Monday next week at 7:30pm in the balcony room and the ladies AGM and annual trophy presentation will be held on Wednesday next week, commencing at 2:30pm. All golfing members are encouraged to attend these meetings.
Events coming up in the near future, we have the “Mal Woolhouse” Memorial Day on Saturday, October 22, the Swan Hill Windows & Kitchens 9-hole summer competition starts on Monday, October 17 and concludes on Sunday, December 1,1 and the men’s club championships will be played over the weekends of November 5-6 and 12-13. These events will then be followed by the RTM Construction Day on Sunday, November 27.
MURRAY DOWNS LADIES
Suzanne McLellan is the Medal of Medallist winner for 2022 – but only after she survived a count back from Janette Tucker, with both competitors scoring a 70 nett in the play-off of all the monthly medal winners over the past 12 months.
The October monthly medal was also on the agenda and this was taken out by Jude Simmonds with a score of 88-22-68, with Suzanne McLellan (23) next best in Division 1.
Consistent Marie Cruickshank (30) was the Division 2 winner, with a 69 nett score, with Avis Shipsides (36) 71 taking out the runner-up prize.
The newly cored greens were no obstacle for Janette Tucker, whose 31 putts won the putting competition and Lois Carnie and Rosie Ficarra both birdied the par 5 12th hole to share the bounty in the birdies nest.
Janette also led the ball pool, with Paula Pickert and Carol Wiseman both 71 and Judi Lonergan, Colleen Roberts, Barb Clark and Michelle Holt all 72. Judi Lonergan, Maree Thurwood, Michelle Holt and Mag Kiley collected the nearest the pin prizes.
Maralyn Morrison (27) 37 points took out Saturday’s major prize ahead of Shelley Wilkins (18) on 35 points. Suzanne McLellan and Kristy Gordon were the next best on 34 points, while Mag Kiley, Robyn Bett, Ruth McAlister and Marg Moore hit the most accurate shots on the par 3s.
Olive Spitty (3) was Sunday’s winner on 39 points, while Tara Free and Sue Davis both on 35 points and Mabel Spitty 33 points were the ball winners. Lynne Bishop and Sarah Clark were the nearest the pin winners on the 11th and 15th respectively.
