This week the Blue Lake Golf Club shines the spotlight on a player who finished down the leader board. Playing off a handicap of 1, Brad “Razzle” Talbot deserves a special mention for his round of 69-1-68.
Talbot had a front nine of 32 off the stick with birdies on the holes three, six and eight and not a blemish on his card. That all soon changed with his first bogey on the 10th quickly followed up by a double bogey on the 11th.
But that was it with pars from then on except for another birdie on the dogleg 15th. Talbot’s superb round of 69 was rewarded with second place in his grade and seventh overall.
Avid fisherman Mark Ferguson (17) was one of four players to card 65, but was relegated down to fourth place and second in his grade on count-back. Thanks to parring the final four holes Gavin Coon eventually clinched the win with his 81-16-65 round, holding off Tim Smith and David Gould.
One of four players tied on nett 65 was A Grade winner Smith with a round of 75-10-65. Improving weekly and getting ever so closer to the magical single-figure handicap, Smith was out of the blocks early with a birdie, par, par start.
He added another birdie on the fifth, but tried to go over the top of the trees on the dogleg ninth and found trouble. After 37 off the stick on the inward nine and another birdie on the 11th, Smith was good enough to take the win by three strokes from Talbot.
Former fast bowler Colin Ferguson took third after a count-back from Nick Moretti. A count-back was also needed to decide the B Grade winner between Gould and Ferguson with the former getting the nod by the barest of margins.
Gould (16) took it down to the last three holes before getting the verdict with his net score of -1 just nudging out Ferguson. Rounding out the placings with his own fine round of net 67 was Tony Brooks (15) who also scored two birdies.
A large four-way count-back took place in C Grade before a clear winner eventuated. Brendan Lunnay (21), Bert Kamphuis (24), Scott Montgomery (24) and Curtis Coppetti (25) all finishing on net 70. Both Montgomery and Coppetti had hard luck stories to tell.
Montgomery birdied holes five and 15, but then had 22 over his last three holes. Coppetti also found trouble over the same holes to hand Lunnay the win after he finished -2 with a par on the 17th helping him take the main prize.
Having only recently taken up the game Karen Panagopolous was rapt to win her first tournament and has now gone onto a three-peat after Saturday’s stroke competition.
While there is still room for improvement Panagopolous’s scorecard was a model of consistency with 106-37-69. The shy and quietly spoken Panagopolous would be excused for her bragging rights, finishing four strokes clear of Lesley McPherson.
Bev Pascoe and Beryl Mahoney finished tied on net 74, but the former was awarded with third place after a countback. Early morning starter Wayne Dunford sat in the club rooms after his round waiting to see if his score of +1 was going to win Tuesday’s mid-week Par competition.
Just when he thought he had pinched the win with a relatively low score, the afternoon golfers raised the bar with Derek Sargeant finally marching to the win with +3. Sargeant started with drill like precision with three pars and a birdie on the opening five holes.
He steadied after a brace of minuses and the inconsistency continued over the back nine before he finally squared the last two holes. His +3 was good enough to take the win ahead of Nathan Muhovics and Gianni Giurastante.
