The run of outstanding scores in the men’s’ competitions at the Mount Gambier Golf Club has continued with Michael Morton topping the leader board in Saturday’s Par competition with an impressive +9.

But even that effort was upstaged by Setio Prajogo-Shanahan who shot an unofficial equal course record of six-under par 66 to take out A Grade with a score of +6.

After shooting nine consecutive pars on the front nine, he demolished the back nine by posting 30 off the stick, the highlight being an albatross two on the par-five 15th hole.

Matching the feat of Richard Gosling on the same hole back in July last year, the 40-year-old hit his drive past the fairway bunker then holed out with his second shot, a four-wood from about 180m.

He backed that up with a birdie on the par-three 16th to post consecutive twos, needing just four shots to complete the two holes in a mind-blowing four-under par.

Having already made birdies on the 10th and 12th, he finished off with two pars for his round of 66.

Incredibly, his score could have been significantly better had his putter been working on the front nine.

He had birdie putts on every one of those holes – in fact the only holes on his round where he was not putting for a birdie were the 13th (where he still made par), and the 15th where he did not need to take the putter out of his bag.

As it turned out, his round was only just good enough to claim victory in A Grade, four-time South-East Open champion Darren Bilney finishing one point back with +5.

Bilney shot an impressive five-under par 67 off the stick, and would have matched Prajogo-Shanahan’s 66 but for an uncharacteristic bogey on the easy par-four 18th.

Multiple club champion Anthony Williams also made light work of the Attamurra layout.

Playing off scratch, he finished on +4 after making five birdies and dropping a shot on just one hole, the par-four 13th.

To highlight how well the course is playing, of the 114 players in the field, no less than 47 matched or beat their handicap.

Club captain Peter Waters said that effort represented “the best overall scores we have seen at the course for many a long day”.

Other impressive results were turned in by Peppi Pace who signed for a +6 to take out B Grade by two shots from Tim MacLean.

And in C Grade of course it was Morton whose +9 was five shots clear of runner-up Rob McLellan.

The 56-year-old was in A Grade when he last played regularly back in 2005, but only started playing regularly and competitively in November last year.

Playing off a 19 handicap on Saturday, Morton said he had struggled to hit the ball well until recently but was now getting back to something near his old form, notwithstanding the odd hiccup.

“Even on Saturday I left a few out there.

“I drove down the middle of the fairway on the 2nd and 3rd holes, but ended up with double bogeys on both,” he said.

“And I missed a short putt for par on the 18th which cost me another plus.”

Despite those double bogeys he still had +3 on the front nine, but dropped to +2 after another double bogey on the par-three 10th.

He put on the afterburners following that hole, however, picking up six points thanks to six consecutive pars, adding another on the 17th with a bogey thanks to getting two shots on the hole.

While Saturday’s scores were incredible, those in Thursday’s Stableford competition were not far behind.

The winner with 44 points was the Peter Berkefeld, whose form in recent years has had the handicapper scratching his head.

Playing off single figures just three years ago, he drifted out to 21 and was totally perplexed by what was going wrong.

But thanks to perseverance and some advice from three of the club’s A Graders, he has turned things around completely and will be back down to 12 for this week’s competition.

His winning round included an excellent 39 off the stick for 23 points on the front nine, backing that up with a 40 on the back for 21 more points.

That was two points better than runner-up Barry Brook.

Two players who deserve a mention are Kevin Cook and Andrew Stark who both finished with 39 points after shooting even-par rounds of 72.