The 19th Hole

MURRAY DOWNS MENS

Rain, rain, go away, come again another day – like in three or four months’ time.

After all the rain that has fallen over the past month, the condition of the Murray Downs course has stood up very well.

There is still water lying on small parts of the lower areas of the course and the committee put all bunkers out of play for a couple of days two weekends ago.

Overall, the course is in very good condition – so now, all is in readiness for the men’s championships, which will start with the first and second rounds on Saturday, November 5 and Sunday, November 6, and the final two rounds to be held over the weekend of November 12 and 13.

At the conclusion of the final round, a barbecue and presentation of championship trophies will be conducted in the Mayers gazebo, at approximately 5.30pm.

Last Saturday we held the Mal Woolhouse Memorial Day in the form of a stroke event. Mal served on the men’s committee for a number of years, doing terms as captain (three years) and secretary (one year), before moving onto the club’s board, where he was the current vice-president, having been elected to this position in 2018 until his passing in February of this year.

Mal’s family were all present at the presentations, with his children Nathan and Haidee assisting with these presentations.

Division 1 was taken out by Andrew Spitty (0), with a nett score of 66, ahead of Justin Thompson (12) on nett 67 and Sean Baumgurtel (5) on nett 68. Lance Stobaus (16) was the division 2 winner with a nett 69 score and was followed by Dale Rogers (14) and Peter Martin (19) on nett 70s.

The best score of the day and the leading event junior came out of division 3, where Noah Starrs was the standout player with a nett 64 score from his 32 handicap.

This is the first time, and certainly won’t be the last, that Noah has beaten the ton off the beater.

Runner-up in this division with a nett 65, was Rob O’Brien (24), who was followed by Gerard Moloney (20) with a nett 69 score.

Nett 71 and better was the score required to be in the ball rundown, while the nearest the pins were taken out by Ross Hastings on the second, Andrew Gilchrist on the fifth, James King on the 11th and Wayne Wisby on the 15th.

On Sunday, a Stableford competition was played in two divisions – with Jason Baird (18) and Neil Chisholm (33) taking out their respective divisions with scores of 37 points.

Charlie King (13) was runner-up in division 1 with 36 points, while Campbell Kennon (21) finished as runner-up in division 2 also with a score of 36 points.

The NTPs went to Campbell Kennon on the second, Gary Blencowe got closest on the 11th and Brenton Halligan redeemed himself a little from the day before, by hitting it closest on the 15th. Other players required at least 34 points to be eligible for a ball.

Thursday of last week saw the club hold a 4BBB Stableford competition, which was taken out by two former football teammates from Sea Lake in Terry McEwan (20) and Greg Daniels (23) with 48 points.

They were followed by Paul Raudino (18) and Tori Ficarra (23), Peter Roberts (26) and Malcolm Talbot (21), and Paul Bethune (12) and Rob O’Brien (24), who all finished with 47 points each.

The nearest the pins went to Paul Raudino, Malcolm Talbot, Greg Weybury and Justin Thompson on holes two, five, 11 and 15 respectively.

On Tuesday of this week, a Stableford competition was held, which saw Stephen Matthews (25) record one of his best ever scores of 39 points to take out the major prize, ahead of Geoff Bett (34) on 38 points by way of a count back with Shane Kelly (20), who had to settle for a golf ball, as did Malcolm Talbot (37 points) and Mark Warren (35 points).

The lucky shots on the par three holes were hit by Gary Hughes on the fifth and Darryl Domaille on the 11th.

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MURRAY DOWNS LADIES

Seventy-three women teed off in the Stableford event at Murray Downs on Wednesday and in a testament to the course designer and developers, only a few areas showed the results of the copious amounts of rain over the last couple of weeks.

Eilleen Willox found the conditions to her liking, scoring 40 points from her 27 handicap, to win division 2 ahead of Jill Bath (39) on 37 points.

In division 1, Lois Carnie (20) scored 37 points and survived a count back with Lynne Bishop (13), while the division 3 winners were Jill Brown (35) on 37 points and the ever-improving new golfer Deb Watson (50) on 36 points.

Jenny Ford collected the $250 jackpot on the par 3 11th, while the other nearest the pin prizes went to Suzanne Napier, Carolyn Zambelli and Jude Simmonds.

Robyn Bett, Lisa Brady, Jenice Krahnert, Carol Wiseman, Jenny Lynas and Kathy Brennan all scored 36 points to lead the ball pool.

Mal Woolhouse was remembered in an event named in his honour on Saturday, with Claris Bourne (28) scoring a 68 nett score won the women’s section on a count back ahead of Jan Butcher (24), with Barb Clark (28) score of 70 nett good enough to finish third.

Olive Spitty won two nearest the pins, while the others went to Jenny Ford and Sarah Clark.

Kristy Gordon (16) 37 points led a small field on Sunday, with Mary Johnson (34) 36 points and Sheila Beard (26) 35 points the next best.