Big-hitting lefty Jason Mann made the most of a recent handicap blowout to claim victory in Saturday’s Monthly Medal at the Mount Gambier Golf Club.
Down to a career-best six just a few weeks ago, Mann admitted he had not been playing “all that well”, resulting in his handicap quickly reversing back to 10 for Saturday’s assignment.
But an excellent short game helped him top the leader board with a net 66, one clear of fellow 10-marker Bryce Whicker.
“I did not hit my driver all that well to be honest, but I chipped-and-putted well for most of the round,” Mann said.
“That (76) was my best score ever … I was pretty happy to do it on a Monthly Medal day.”
Starting his round on the back nine, he made a solid par three on the 10th hole, before unleashing a monster drive on the par-five 11th.
He hit it so far he only needed a pitching wedge from about 120m out for his second, landing that shot on the green and taking two putts for a birdie.
The rest of that nine was a mix of pars and birdies, making the turn on 40 which was only marginally better than his handicap.
But the front nine was a different story.
Pars on the first two holes were followed by a birdie on the par-four 3rd hole, despite finding the left rough beyond the fairway bunkers with his drive.
He quickly gave that back with a bogey on the 4th hole, but five pars to finish gave him an excellent even-par 36 off the stick.
Whicker’s round was incredibly similar.
He also had 36 on the front nine, but a double-bogey five on the 10th saw him shoot 41 on the back to finish just one shot behind Mann.
That was still good enough to finish runner-up in A Grade, while Jon Clayton’s net 69 was good enough to take out B Grade on a countback from Matthew McCallum.
The C Graders found the going a bit tougher, particularly in the windy conditions, with a net 71 by Graham Robinson giving him the honours on a countback from Peter Jones.
Meanwhile evergreen Lyndsay Copeman was thrilled to win Thursday’s stableford competition with an impressive 44 points off his 25 handicap.
The 82-year-old won back in October with 41 points off a 28 handicap and will now have to make do with 23 after his latest victory cost him another two shots.
He was not thinking about winning after his first six holes which netted just 11 points.
But three consecutive three-pointers to finish the front nine took him up to 20 and that was a sign of things to come on the back nine.
After finding the greenside bunker on the 10th hole, Copeman played out to just off the back of the green, but managed to hole the putt for a four-point par.
He picked up two points on the 11th then added another four on the par-four 12th and two three-pointers after bogeys on the 13th and 14th.
That prompted one of his playing partners to commit the cardinal sin of golf, telling Copeman he already had 36 points with four holes still to play.
As all golfers would expect, that led to a wipe on the 15th, but thankfully he recovered to add eight more points on the final three holes to finish on 44.
Two points back in second place was Eric Roughana, the 95-year-old only missing out on shooting his age (easily) thanks to also wiping the 15th and not recording a score.
He had 44 off the stick on the front nine and 38 for the eight completed holes on the back nine, meaning anything less than a 13 on the 15th would have seen complete that achievement.
Wayne Sampson was one shot behind Roughana in third place on 41 points, while the low round of the day went to scratch-marker Setio Prajogo-Shanahan who had 39 on the front nine, but caught fire to shoot a four-under par 32 on the back nine to finish with a one-under par 71 and 37 points.
