Men
Last Sunday, the Murray Downs Golf & Country Club held their annual Australia Day two-person Ambrose tournament, sponsored by “Bailey Ag” for the 10th time.
A very good field of 146 golfers took part in this popular event.
The men’s section was taken out by Luke Merritt & Steven Bulmer with an impressive gross score of 63, for a nett score of 60.25.
Runner-up also with a very good score, was the pairing of Chris Joyce & Craig Davies with 60.5, they were followed by Joe Grzinic (Ballarat) and Adam Laughlin, in third position with 60.75, by way of a count-back ahead of Craig Fletcher & James McLean, in fourth position.
It is worth noting that 2 of our promising Juniors, in Noah Starrs and Charlie King, finished in fifth position with a nett score of 61.
Dale Smith, Luke Merrit, Peter Doyle (Cohuna) and Bryan Duffy (Nihill GC) hit the closest shots on the par 3 holes.
In the women’s section Suzanne Napier & Janette Tucker came out on top with a score of 69.75, ahead of the pairings of Janelle Hogan & Mag Kiley and Tania Dignan & Fiona Boswell (Stawell GC), who each finished with 71.5.
Ross Kenyon (13) turned back the clock several years, by recording a nett score of 66 to take out the February monthly medal, on Saturday.
His superior back-nine got him over the line, for the converted medal, as both Ian Johansen (13) Kade Benfield (21) and Chayse Worner (36) also finished with the same nett score.
Johansen was the best in division 2 and Benfield got the nod in division 4, from the unlucky Worner. Craig Fletcher (11) was the best in division 1 at 67 nett, from Glenn Palmer (10) on 69 followed by Tynan Perry (11) on 70 nett.
Runner-up in division 2 was Chris Worner (12) from Patterson River with 67 nett, followed by Troy Gnitecki (15) on 68.
Andrew Cameron (17) got the nod in his favour for division 3 honours, just ahead of Ben Smith (16) with both players finishing with a nett 70, with Rod Prockter (16) in third with a 71 nett.
The lucky shots were hit by Dale Rogers on the 2nd, Andrew Halligan on the 11th and James McLean on both the 5th and 15th.
Archie O’Toole (29) recorded the day’s best score of 42 stableford points in last Thursday’s competition, to pick up the major prize on offer and division 4 honours. Rob West (23) with 41 points and Tiger Vearing (41) 37 were the next best in this division.
Tory Ficarra (22) recorded one of his best ever scores, of 38 points, to be the best in division 3, just ahead of Joe Phelan (18) from Horsham, with 37 and Darryl Domaille (19) with 34.
Another visitor in Brett Standen (11), Bingara Gorge GC, was awarded the main prize in division 2, from Dale Smith (11) with both players finishing with 38 points apiece. They were followed by Rod Prockter (14) with 36.
Colin Mewburn (10) took out division 1 with his 40 points, from Glenn Palmer (8) with 36 and Justin Thompson (10) with 35.
This weekend will be a very one, for Murray Downs, with the holding of 31st Reciprocal Clubs Challenge tournament.
At last count, there are 35 Reciprocal clubs being represented.
The tournament gets underway on Friday with the 4BBB Stableford challenge, followed by the Reciprocal Challenge over the weekend.
The format being a 4 player teams event, with each teams 3 best scores being combined for the teams daily total, with the total from both days making up each teams final tally.
Women
Fifty one women enjoyed benign summer conditions at MDG & CC on Wednesday.
In Division one, Georgina Douglas ( 25)and Virginia Allen (23) both posted 36 stableford points with Douglas surviving the count back to win the major prize.
Kerry Gammon (35) has made an impressive return to golf after hip surgery by scoring 35 points ahead of new golfer Di Pinal (48) 34 points.
Maralyn Morrison, Jenny Lynas and Eilleen Willox all scored 35 points to lead the ball pool . Robyn Bett and Douglas were each $125 richer after hitting their tee shots within two metres of the flag on the par 3 11th hole and the other nearest the pin winners were Georgina Douglas, Marg Moore and Janette Tucker.
On Saturday, Jenice Krahnert continued her purple patch from the previous week with 40 points from her 27 handicap. Jan McEwan (34) 38 points was next best followed by Kayla Shadbolt (33) 37 points and Marg Moore (21) 36 points.
Jenny Lynas and Jenice Krahnert both collected nearest the pin prizes.
Eileen Morath and Nancy Downes were the winners of the Golden Girls competition which started last Friday. Details of this weekly nine-hole competition are available from the pro shop.
