MURRAY DOWNS MEN
MORE than 650 golfers took part over the five days of the women’s Silver Putter, women’s Golden Putter, men’s Golden Shoe and the men’s 36-hole Golden Putter over the weekend.
The entire tournament was very successful, except for a little precipitation on Thursday and Friday.
The men’s competitions had players from 55 different clubs, which made up about 75 per cent of the fields, who were all full of praise for the condition of the course and how the tournament was run.
The 2023 Golden Shoe, which was a singles Stableford event and was divided into three divisions.
The winner of Division 1 and the Golden Shoe winner was Vailele Sa (8) from Melton Valley, with a score of 39 points, while the runner up was Scott Donaldson (11) from Gisborne with 36 points.
Division 2 was taken out by the 2022 Golden Shoe winner in Leon Egan (17) with 36 points, just ahead of Clete Paige (15) from Buninyong with 35 points.
David Lavithis (28) from Horsham with 38 points was the best in Division 3, with Justin Craven (19) from Melton Valley following on 36 points.
The nearest-the-pins on Friday went to Matthew Collins on the 2nd, Rob West on the 5th, Mark Fletcher on the 11th and Adrian Taylor on the 15th.
The 2023 Golden Putter, which is a 4BBB par competition, got under way on Saturday morning in rather cool conditions, with a capacity field of 228 players taking part.
Scoring was rather tough, as reflected by the scores handed in, with the winners of Saturday’s competition, by way of the count-back system, were Rod Craven (26) from Melton Valley and Kevin Beardsley (22) from Eynesbury with a score of six up, ahead of Murray Downs members Luke (3) and Ryan Merritt (19) and Horsham visitors Brian Thomson (19) and Bruce Knight (11).
Stephen Wik from Horsham scored a hole-in-one on the 11th hole, while the other nearest the pins went to Heath Jaensch on the 2nd, Cayle McLean on the 5th and David Hocking on the 15th.
Mark Douglass (18) and David Lavithis (29) recorded the best score of 7 up on Sunday, just ahead of Tony (18) and Grant Ford (11), Chris Conlan (17) and Brian Elliott (15), and Geoff Frame (20) and Paul Shannon (9) from Green Acres, all with six up.
The nearest the pins on Sunday went to Greg Roberts on the 2nd, Troy Gnitecki on the 5th, Paul Evans on the 11th and Murray Fraser on the 15th.
The 2023 Golden Putter was won by Murray Downs members Kain Domaille (20) and Brenton Gurnet (10) with a final score of 13 up.
They got away to solid start on Saturday with 6 up and then backed it up on Sunday with another solid round of seven up, to take out the event.
It was a bittersweet win for Domaille and Gurnet, as they were the club house leaders on the first day of the 2019 Golden Putter, with a score of 10 up, with the day’s event then cancelled due a thunderstorm in the afternoon, which made the course unplayable.
The runners up were another Murray Downs team in Rob West (26) and Chris Merritt (16) who finished on 11 up (three and eight), ahead of Nick Thomson (3) and Greg Magor (9) from Horsham (four and seven) by way of the countback system.
The next six teams all finished at 8 up, including Steve Bulmer (Murray Downs) and Vince Foott (Rich River), Jason Hutchins and Glen McLean (Patterson River), Glen Laurie and John Jenson (Melton Valley), Neil Dyson (Rich River) and Neville Lister (Hidden Valley), Josh Burgess and Nick Robertson (Horsham) and Col Hedwards (Murray Downs) and Mal Williams (Kyabram).
MURRAY DOWNS LADIES
HISTORY was made at Murray Downs Golf and Country Club last week when the same pairing took out the main prizes in both the Silver and Golden Putter events.
It was the 14th year of the Silver Putter and the 50th anniversary of the Golden Putter, which commenced at the Donnington Golf Club, with a field of 144 representing 44 visiting clubs.
Adrienne Fievez (21) and Marg Ivory (26) from the Gisborne Golf Club are regular visitors to Murray Downs and on this occasion they scooped the pool, with scores of 48 points on Wednesday and nine up on Thursday securing their bounty.
The runners up in the Golden Putter were Lois Carnie (18) from Murray Downs and Rosie Johnson (20) from Shepparton, also scoring nine up.
Kerry Lynch and Alison Braendler from Nhill were third, with a score of seven up, finishing ahead of Vicki Kirby and Denise Selwood from Thurgoona Golf Club on count back.
The migration of the grey nomads and the threat of rain reduced Wednesday’s field to 30.
The best score of the against par event came from Pam Blohm (29) with two up, while Eilleen Willox (27) finished at one up – they were the only two competitors on the plus side of the ledger.
Jenny Lynas, at square, was next best, followed by Paula Pickert and Melita Sartori at one down.
Mandy McCallum and Melita Sartori collected the nearest-the-pin prizes.
LALBERT
LAST Sunday the fourth and final round of the club championship was played, with the best three rounds of the four counting.
In the days play, the A grade scratch winner was James Meehan Jr, on 76, ahead of Doug Meehan on 84 and James Meehan Sr with 86.
In B Grade scratch, Scott Worner shot a 92, with Peter Harley and Stewart McGregor finishing with 95.
In ladies’ scratch, Danika Meehan scored 109, with Robyn Meehan scoring 114.
The men’s A Grade Stableford event was won by James Meehan Jr with 36 points, ahead of James Meehan Sr on 31 points.
In B Grade, Scott Worner won with 32 points, on a countback ahead of his son Chayce, while in the ladies’ section Danika Meehan won with 33 points, ahead of Robyn Meehan on 24 points.
Carly Shepherd won the nine-hole juniors with 38.5 net ahead of Blake Shepherd on 39 net, with no nearest the pin winners.
The A Grade men’s champion is Doug Meehan on 239, ahead of James Meehan Jr on 252 and James Meehan Sr on 253.
Our B Grade men’s champion in Scott Worner on 268, ahead of Stuart McGregor on 274 and Peter Harley on 283.
The 2023 ladies’ club champion is Danika Meehan on 318, ahead of Robyn Meehan on 338 and Caitlin McKissack on 346.
The 2023 NDGC medallist is Doug Meehan on 224, from Maurice Meehan, Scott Worner and Stuart McGregor on 226 and James Meehan Sr on 229.
The Pat Jobling Memorial winner was Danika Meehan on 228, ahead of Robyn Meehan on 238 and Caitlyn McKissack on 257.
The nine-hole junior champion is Blake Shepherd on 173 ahead of his sister Carly on 182.
