Mount Gambier Golf Club member Gary Button has lost count of the number of times he’s had his acceptance speech written, only to throw away a winning score on the last few holes with one or more double bogeys.
But in Saturday’s stableford competition, despite managing just six points in the last four holes, he was able to hang on and come in with the best score of the day for the first time in longer than he could remember.
His 40 points, courtesy of 20 on each nine, was one better than Philip Walters and Gary Wilson, while Nick Black, Craig Foster and Clint Mitchell were one further back on 38 apiece.
Playing off a 12 handicap, Button, who admitted he had “played crap golf for a long time” was on song in the 125-strong field on Saturday.
After managing two points on each of the first two holes, he caught fire on the par-four 3rd, hitting a seven-iron to three feet for a four-point birdie.
That was followed by a three-point par on the 4th, and another four-pointer on the 5th when he calmly rolled in another birdie three from about 10 feet after a well-judged nine-iron with his approach shot.
A three-point par on the par-five 7th was sandwiched between one-point bogeys on the two par-threes on the front nine, giving him 20 points on the 9th tee where he was just one-over par off the stick.
He admitted he may have got a bit ahead of himself at that point, thinking his previous best nine-hole score of three-over par 39 was about to become history.
He was quickly brought back to earth when his drive hit the sign next to the ladies tee and bounced backwards, that hiccup followed by several more “dumb” shots that saw him eventually manage a triple-bogey seven for zero points.
Thinking he was on the verge of throwing away another promising start, he bounced back quickly with four, three-point pars in the first five holes on the back nine, and despite bogeys on the 15th, 16th, and 17th, was able to par the last for another 20 points on the back nine and a total of 40.
“I got a lucky break on 10 when my tee shot went into the bunker but somehow jumped out and finished just off the green,” he said.
“I managed to par that for three points, and then sunk a tricky six-footer on the 18th for another par.
“It was great to have a win, but even better to get the money off Trent (playing partner and former president Trent Eitzen).”
Button’ s score gave him victory in A Grade with Wilson finishing runner-up, while Peppi Pace took out B Grade on a countback from Brett Shepherdson after they both signed for 37s.
Walters’ 39 points saw him take out C Grade, two clear of Alan Chalk.
While Button has been struggling for form, that has not been the case with the winner of Thursday’s stableford competition at Attamurra.
After finishing fifth with 40 points just two weeks earlier, David Cameron produced an even better round, coming in with 43 points, one clear of runner-up Chris Ryan.
Playing off a 28 handicap, Cameron was solid on the front nine with 19 points, but managed a superb 24 on the back, highlighted by four three-pointers in a row from the 10th onwards, and a rare four-point par on the 17th hole.
Ryan on the other hand did his best work on the front nine with 23 points, but could not repeat that on the inward nine, managing 19 more points to finish second.
Third placegetter Patrick O’Donnell shot the round of the day, the six-handicapper firing a one-over par 73 off the stick to notch a very creditable 41 points.
