Matthews toils through rain to snatch hard-earned win

Matthews toils through rain to snatch hard-earned win

Jake Matthews will be grateful the Match Committee decided to go ahead with Saturday’s Stroke competition after wild weather lashed the course with more than 25mm of rain.

A quick inspection showed some freestanding water on holes 3 and 8 but with no further  rain forecast for the morning it was decided that play would be safe.

Matthews (15) made the most of that call by going out and birdying the first and following that up with a par on the third.

Despite a couple of hiccups on the front nine Matthews still turned with 41  off the stick thanks to another birdie on the 6th but it was a superb nine in those conditions.

With the course recovering quickly Matthews consolidated his great start with opening pars on the back nine.

Just the one double on the inward journey saw him come in with a match winning 40 off the stick for a nett 66.

Having relished the blustery winter conditions in his outstanding football career it was  no wonder to see Keith “Hooker” Ransom excel.

Ransom took out A grade despite a double doughnut on the fourth.

“Putting that behind him he then returned a 37 on the inward nine to finish 80-12-68.

In the bleak conditions it was a case of all  or nothing scores wise with birdies as rare as hens teeth and greatly valued, so B grade winner John Brown (84-16-68) would have thought he had got his round kick-started with a birdie on the fifth after opening with four straight bogeys.

But just as quickly it had started it almost spluttered to a finish with two double bogeys to follow.

His back nine was similar (equal splits of 42) with four valuable pars being slighted dented with a couple of double bogeys.

Shooting under handicap any time is an achievement but it was even more impressive in those conditions.

Anything around par to your handicap was always going to be a good score and that’s what Curtis Coppetti and Robert Lindner did  to take out first and second respectively in C grade.

Coppetti (95-24-71) gritted it out after a scrambling finish to his front nine (50) to go five shots better on the inward nine with pars on the 10th and 13th.

Tuesday’s Stableford winner was Matthew Kurzman, turning an acceptable Saturday score into a winning one at his next outing.

Kurzman (23) once again got off to a hot  start with a three point par on the first, consolidating on the next two, before adding a brace  of three-point holes on the 5th and 6th.

Turning with 19 points he quickly put some disappointing holes behind him and came home on the breeze, adding no less than 17 points over the last six holes for a winning score of 40 points.

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