Last Thursday presented very windy conditions for the field of 109 (last week 108) with 40pts enough for past president Trent Eitzen (6) to scoop the pool. Eitzen made the most of the school holidays with a blistering start of pars on holes 1 – 8 followed by birdies on 11 and 12 to be square through 15. Another birdie on the hardest hole on the course the 17^th, added up to a 21pt back nine enough to count out Barry Page (22) also on 40pts but with a 20/20 split. Page had 9 x 3 pointers which is quite a feat and 6 x 2 pointers being solid but a 1 x 1 pointer and 2 wipes spoilt what was a good score. They were followed on 39pts by Roger Davis, Mike Griffiths, Lachie Rees and Mike Attwell (23pts the front nine) and on 38pts an interstate visitor from Dartmoor GC Robert Pratt.

With another large field the ball rundown again went to 35pts with Craig Foster the last of the six players on 35pts. NTP were taken out by David Anderson, with a birdie, on the 8^th and Peter Miller, with 37pts, on the 16^th.

Saturday’s stableford competition had the biggest field for some time with 141 men. It’s that time of the year with a large number of visitors from a variety of clubs including Northern GC, The Vines Reynella, Future, Thirteenth Beach (Brad Close Geelong premiership player and ex North Gambier FC), Strathalbyn, Grange, Swan Reach, Blackwood and local clubs Blue Lake and Port MacDonnell. Perfect conditions resulted in many good scores and with the large field the ball run down went to 35pts rounded out by Bailey Letizia the last of 10 players on 35pts.

“A” grade saw the return of Tim Kenny (10) from the APY lands who must have enjoyed the green scenery with 41 pts saluting. Golf is a game of momentum and you never know what will unfold and it was the case for Kenny with a 4pt birdie on the 9^th for 19pts kick starting a 22pt back nine with 3pointers coming on the difficult holes 11, 12, 14 and 17 and ended with another 3pointer courtesy of a birdie on the 18^th. Kenny would have been over the moon and very chirpy. Runner up on 40pts was Roger Davis (7), backing up his 39pts on Thursday. You would think that paring every hole on the front nine would provide more than 20pts but that is the vagaries of the handicap rating. Davis continued with another 20pts on the back nine and rounded out his 75 off the stick also with a birdie on 18. A good days work. On 38pts John Martin (1), Zac Shanks, Pat O’Donnell and Jason Mann while last weeks “A” grade winner Joe Clements had another good score with 37pts.

The competitive “B” grade saw Leigh McCracken (15) break through for a well deserved win on 39pts from his playing partner Ross Bond (11), Gordon Bignell and Nick Seager also on 39pts. McCracken 19/20 put the winning score together in the middle stages with a string of 3 pointers on 8 (birdie) and pars on 9, 10 and 11 followed by another on the 16^th. Bond by contrast played his best early for 20pts on the front, including a birdie on the difficult 6^th and rallied late on the back nine for 19pts with birdies on the 16^th and 18^th. Bignell was similar with 20/19 while Seager had 21/18. Jacob Reed with 38pts then Peter Waters, Chris Gabriel and David McGregor were others to play to handicap with 37pts.

David Lewis (28) from Blackwood GC recorded the best score of the day with 42pts. Lewis an ex Mt Gambier/Cafpirco resident was a talented sportsman in both cricket and football. He was involved with his well known family that enjoyed a lot of success with greyhound and pigeon racing over the years plus show poultry breeding and exhibitions both locally and nationally. Lewis left Mt Gambier to pursue a highly successful finance career with Peoples Choice Credit Union. An 18pt front nine followed by 2pts on both 10 and 11 gave Lewis 22pts at that stage who then produced 20pts on the last 7 holes. Starting with 3pts on 12^th and 13^th, 4pt par on 14^th, 4pt birdie on 16 and 3pts on 17. Quite a run. The unlucky runner up was Josh MacLean (21) with 18/23 and a similar story. 3pts on 11 and 13, 4pts on 14, 15 (birdie) and 17. Peter Bekefeld also on 41pts with spilts of 21/20 had no hope on the countback system chasing those big back nine scores. A lot of good scores in “C” grade with Shane Foote and Cameron Horstmann (Swan Reach) on 40pts, then Steven Coe and Bob Dalgarno with 39pts, followed by Cameron Buchanan, Stephen Stott, Ian Ritter and Kym Sykes on 38pts then on 37pts Jack Peacock.

NTP on the 8^th went to Peter Lock, with the first shot of the day and Dan Christian (Blue Lake) on the 16^th.