At 49, Mount Gambier Golf Club member Patrick O’Donnell is in the best form of his life.
He followed rounds of 73 and 74 off the stick on consecutive Thursdays, neither of them quite good enough to win, with another one-over par round of 73 to finally claim victory in Saturday’s Monthly Medal with a score of net 67.
Playing off a six handicap, O’Donnell, who started playing at age eight and amazingly has never shot an even-par round of 72 at Attamurra, said the only thing he could put his finger on for the purple patch was his putting.
“I changed my putter a few months ago, tried a slightly different grip and I have been consciously trying to hit my putts with softer hands,” he said.
“But apart from that I really do not know how it has happened.
“I’m definitely playing my best golf ever.”
On Saturday he was one-over par after his first three holes following a par, bogey, par start, but made a timely birdie on the par-four 4th hole.
The long-hitter needed only a 52-degree gap wedge for his approach shot, making no mistake with the flat stick from about 10 feet.
The rest of the front nine was solid without being spectacular, making the turn at one-over par 37 after making bogey on the par-five 7th and pars on the other four holes.
His back nine did not get off to the start he wanted, missing a par putt from less than four feet on the par-three 10th, and then having to take a penalty drop on the par-five 11th after spraying his 2nd shot into the hazard off the right side of the fairway.
Those two bogeys saw him drift out to three-over par, but he bounced back with birdies on the 12th and 14th, the latter after a difficult downhill putt from about 25 feet.
Four pars on the way in saw him finish three shots clear at the top of the leaderboard, the only player to shoot under 70 net among the 118-strong field.
That gave him the final Monthly Medal for 2021, and victory in A Grade from Trent Eitzen who took second spot on a countback from Ross Bond.
Tony McGregor won B Grade with a net 70, one shot ahead of John Miles, and in C Grade Peter Jones signed for a net 71, one clear of Neil McKay.
Meanwhile in Thursday’s Stableford Competition Gordon Bignell had everyone talking after posting a blistering 48 points, one better than the previous best score of the year recorded by Ben Maxwell back in February.
Playing off a 15 handicap, Bignell shot an even-par 36 off the stick on the front nine for 26 points.
The highlight was a four-point birdie on the 3rd hole after hitting his approach to about four feet.
The remaining holes on the front were not perfect, but he managed to get up and down for pars on the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th, his playing partners in awe of his recovery work around the greens.
It was hard to match those heroics on the back nine, his 22 points seeming pedestrian by comparison.
But that still equated to a fantastic three-over par 75 off the stick, not quite the best score he has ever posted, but certainly the best for a long time.
His 48 points was six better than runner-up Roger Gulin, who incredibly was ahead of Bignell after the first nine thanks to an amazing 27 points.
Not surprisingly he could not keep up that pace, managing just 15 more on the back nine.
Other noteworthy efforts were turned in by O’Donnell whose 74 off the stick was the best round of the day (for 39 points), while 95-year-old Neil Richardson continued his good run in recent weeks with another 39 points to also finish in the top 10.
