Practice has not made golfing newcomer Nicholas Morony perfect, but it certainly helped him to the top of the leaderboard in Saturday’s par competition at the Mount Gambier Golf Club.
The 26-year-old, who only joined the club and started playing regularly in March last year, finished on plus three which was good enough for the first Saturday win of his short career. “I have played soccer pretty much all my life,” Morony said. “I was coaching juniors at Inter but I gave that up and had Saturdays free, so I thought I’d have a go at golf.”
His initial handicap was “32 or 33”, but while he had not broken through for a win, but played consistently enough to be down to 25 on Saturday. His first nine holes were solid, turning at plus one after pick-ups on holes one and eight and pluses on the second, third and fifth holes.
He followed that with plus two on the back nine to edge out three other players who also came in with plus three. “I have been playing pretty much every day during the school holidays,” the youth worker at Mount Gambier High said. “Even when school’s in I try to play two or three times a week. “I have got the bug.” Morony’s round was easily good enough to take first prize in C Grade, finishing two clear of Joel Bryant.
Six-handicapper Matt Knowles led the way in A Grade with plus two, edging out Craig Wirth on a countback. There were some hard luck stories in B Grade, with Grant Harvey overcoming youngster Callum Harvey and Conor Ryan after the trio all finished on plus three.
Grant Harvey was at plus five with just four holes to play, but a three-putt bogey on the par-three sixth and a pick-up on the seventh saw him come back to the field.
Meanwhile it was recent winner Ryan who was left wondering what might have been. Playing off 14, the Irishman had an excellent plus four on the front nine and was still on that score on the 15th tee.
Unfortunately, he dropped shots on 15 and 16 before recovering with an eagle two on the par-four 18th, although that was only good enough for third in B Grade.
While Morony’s win was reward for all of his practice, Peter Wells showed in Thursday’s stableford competition that a different preparation can be just as effective.
Not only does the 74-year-old never practice, he also only plays about once a month. And despite carrying just a half set of clubs he came in with an excellent 43 points, two ahead of fellow veteran Malcolm Treloar. “I’m not competitive usually … “I just go out for the walk and the social aspect,” Wells said. “Having said that I did win two consecutive Thursday competitions in April 2018.
“This was my first win since then, but having a 35 handicap helps.” Amazingly Wells only plays with a driver, three wood, three iron, seven iron, pitching wedge, sand wedge and putter.
Of that set, only the driver which is about six years old qualifies as remotely “new”. While Wells took home the top prize, the round of the day was turned in by Richard Gosling who had an even par 72 off the stick to finish with 37 points off his one handicap.
