With the tee blocks set to their maximum length for the Monthly Medal it usually results in the long hitting A graders to make their mark on the game and that is what happened up at the Blue Lake Golf Club on Saturday.

Blessed with beautiful autumnal conditions there was no excuse for golfers not bringing their best game to the course and overall winner Colin Ferguson certainly did.

Starting off in the best possible way Ferguson birdied the first and a follow up par had him under the card early.

With the par five third hole playing to its full length, it was no surprise to see him register his first bogey but he saw out the front nine with just two more to turn with a two over 37 and set up a good run home.

Two pars to open the back nine were negated with two successive bogeys but with the flag on the bottom tier of the 17th he knew there was a birdie there for the taking which is exactly what he did.

While not quite matching the front nine his one over 38 was still good enough to see Ferguson take the win with 75-6-69.

A grade winner Bob White set himself up for one of those days he could tell his new grandchild all about with an even par 35 on the front nine.

With a generous handicap of 7, White had the overall win in his sights after opening the back nine with another par on the 10th.

Three successive bogeys halted his momentum slightly but worse was to come on the 14th with tree trouble seeing him dent his hopes with a double bogey.

He was another to take advantage of the pin placement on the 17th where a birdie minimised the damage but he could not quite recover to threaten Ferguson, taking the grade win with a nett 70.

Nick Wilson was another to curse the trees, but his trouble came on the dog-leg ninth hole which offers rewards for those willing to take it on but also penalises if you get it wrong.

It obviously rattled Wilson a little as he also double bogeyed the 10th to have splits of 38 and 41 which was still enough to take second place.

Rob Ellis can thank the difference in handicaps (8 to +1) for his third place after tying with Anthony Williams on nett 72’s apiece.

Ellis’s front nine was a roller coaster, starting par, double bogey, bogey, double bogey, birdie before settling down with some more regulation golf.

He still managed to scramble a 40 off the stick which he mirrored on the back nine, almost gifting Williams third place after struggling to a bogey on the 17th.

Williams also had his share of ups and downs but his came on the closing holes of the back nine with a birdie, double bogey, birdie, birdie finish.

B grade winner Ben Papps was not quite sure how he felt after Saturday’s round.

While it’s always great to take a win he was left wondering what could have been.

With the length to match any A grader Papps managed to throw in three double bogeys in his round but what would irritate him the most would be the last hole which played host to the long drive hole.

After depositing his tee shot just 30 or so meters from the green, he then walked off with a bogey.

An improvement in his short game will see him cement a spot in A grade.

Robert Martland took his time to get his game going, starting with three successive double bogeys but from then on he displayed the form that once took him to a single figure handicap.

If his putter had obeyed him there was a better result on offer but he was still happy to have equal splits of 45 and a nett 71.

Dudley Tanton (86-14-72) can thank his strong finish of four successive pars for clinching third place from Shaun Phillips (90-18-72).

Tanton’s round was like a super bike rider running off the course at times but then finding the racing line to take the bronze medal.

One of three players to threaten Ferguson for the outright win was C grade winner Thomas Von Stanke.

In a competition where most of the higher handicappers struggle to register a good score Von Stanke was the standout.

With a generous 34 handicap there was still plenty of red ink on his score card but there were no blow outs and he was another to take advantage of the short 17th for a par.

As they say you can only play to the handicap you’re given and Von Stanke did that effectively to take the win.

Two Blue Lake veterans in Bruce Tichbon and Russell Lingham fought out the minor placings after both finished with nett 73.

Tichbon (24) can thank his birdie on the 14th and a par on the 17th for his victory over Lingham.

Veteran Brian Vawser is turning back the clock and is in a rich vein of form of late adding another win in the midweek Stableford competition at the Blue Lake Golf club.

A healthy handicap of 21 allowed him to throw in a couple of double bogeys on his outward nine but still pick up two points.

A tap in birdie on the fifth saw him also take the Pro Shot for the day as well as a valuable four points and at the halfway mark he was sitting pretty with 21 points.

Thinking the birdie on the fifth was as good as it was going to get, Vawser then added four pars over his back nine to go even better with 22 points making him the standout winner for the day.

Local man of steel Tony Steen tried hard to catch Vawser but it was too much of a span even with a four-point birdie on the 11th.

Steen was solid without being exceptional on his outward nine, his 38 off the stick equating to 21 points.

Having 17 points up to the 17th he had a certain win in his sights, especially with the flag down the bottom of the green.

All he had to do was put it on the green for three for a possible birdie or at least a certain par but his ambitions got slightly ahead of his abilities and a seven only gave him the solitary point which was probably the difference between first and second.

There was a three way count back needed to decide the final place on the podium with Bruce Tichbon (24), Bruce Grubb (21) and Ian Bown all finishing on 39.

With a handicap of 6 Bown could not afford a slip up but that’s what he did after finding tree trouble on the 14th.

This was always going to go against him in a count back so it came down to a battle of the Bruce’s.

Even though Grubb birdied the 15th his 21 points fell short of Tichbon’s 23 which saw him claim third.