The French champagne corks were popping at the Mount Gambier Golf Club on Thursday when Alex Rigaux blitzed the field of 114 to post an incredible 51 points.

The affable and eloquent Frenchman is a newcomer to golf and has set a high bar with 51 points.

Rigaux (45) had 27 points on the front nine.

Who averages three points on the front nine? His round comprised 5 x 3 pts, 4 x 4pts and a par on the 14th for 5 points.

When asked to describe his round, Rigaux laughed and said “I could not believe the holes moved to wherever I was putting!”.

Runner up was Terry Janeway (12) with 42 points on a countback from Bob Tonkin (25).

Janeway’s round of 20/22 was highlighted by birdie on 5 and 13, both four pointers and the 18th following a par on the 17th for a strong finish.

Tonkin by comparison had 22/20 on what was a nice steady round of two and three pointers.

Others to play to their handicap were on 40 points, John Miles runner up the last two weeks becoming a Thursday specialist and on 38 Jake Dempsey, Matt Knowles and Sam Mainwaring.

The ball run down seems to be stuck on 35 points with John Kirby the last of the seven players.

Nearest the pins were taken out by long-time member Tony McGregor on the 8th and youngster Charlie Winterfield (40) on 16 with both recording birdies, a highlight for Winterfield.

Saturday saw another large field of 132 men (and 25 women) tee it up with the A grade being the hot grade with a host of good scores starting with Craig Nisbet (10) posting the best score of the day with 41 points on a countback from the unlucky Jason Shanks (5).

Nisbet, with a modest 15 point front nine, tore up the back nine with a 26, shooting a two under par 34.

A par on the 10th started the fireworks with an eagle on 11 for five points, birdie on 14 for four and closed in style with another eagle on the 18th for four to claim an eagle’s nest bonus 10 balls.

The unlucky Shanks, beaten by Nisbet’s eagle on the last, followed up last Saturday’s good round with an even par 72 comprising 19/22 with birdies on four, nine and the difficult 17th to reclaim bragging 
rights.

Good scores followed for the consistent Bryan Pink and Sam Letizia on 39 points, Matt Knowles continuing on from Thursday, Hayden Schroder (1) and Stacey Parsons with 
38.

They were followed by Nic Clayton, David McGregor and Jake Laubsch (+2) on 37.

In B grade Dane Handreck (16) got back into the winners’ circle with the second best score of the day with 41 points.

Playing the front nine to handicap with 18, Handreck recorded five pars and an 18th birdie for a back nine 23 shooting 38 well under the odds for the 16 handicapper.

Runner up on 39 was Darren Griffin (13) with 21/18 in a round that had nine pars which included all the four par threes.

They were followed by Neil Quirk with 38 and on 37 Lachie Rees and Darren Keading.

Peter Jones (19) had one of the better afternoon scores with 39 points to take out C grade, although he left his run late with his back nine 21 points coming primarily over the last five holes with 15.

A birdie on 18 was a bonus to finish off a good round.

Runner up with 37 points was Max Tollner (17), in good form following Thursday’s 36.

With a bit more experience Tollner will avoid the dreaded doubles and soon be in the winners’ circle.

Stephen Stott with 36 then Kym Sykes and Charlie Finch with 35 were next in line.

With the large field and windy conditions, the ball run down went to 33 points with Paul Reade and Max Hellyer the best two on 33.

Nearest the pin on the 8th went to Mike Millard and Kevin Cook on the 16th with both converting on their good shots with birdies.