Scores of 40 or more were needed to win each grade in Saturday’s Stableford competition at the Blue Lake Golf Club on Saturday.
Matt Patzel was lucky to claim the out- right win with his 41 points being just enough.
Patzel (16) started steadily with pars on the opening two holes earning him six points and it was steady as she goes from there on before his only one point hole of the day on the 9th.
Turning with 19 points Patzel sensed a possible win and thanks to a birdie on the 15th he did just that with another 22 points on the inward nine.
There was a mixture of A, B and C grade players who chased hard and Richard Evans (13), Ian Bown (8) and Kevin Mansell (30) all finished tied on 40 points and took their respective grade wins.
Bown was a clear A Grade winner with runner-up Shane Stevens and third-placed Keith Ransom a distant three points further back.
Stevens (6) got the nod in a count-back with splits of 18 and 19 plus a birdie on the 17th hole.
Evans’s 40 points were also three better than Adam Jones and Andrew Russell.
Evans was unlucky not to feature in the reckoning for an outright win with an impressive birdie on the difficult par 3 16th hole but the damage had been done before that with a series of one-point holes.
Jones (13) also came in over the back nine with 21 points which helped him claim second outright on a count-back with Russell (13) who set the course alight early with a 36 off the stick.
After claiming the main prize in the feted GEM Easter Tournament Mansell has got used to the winning feeling and returned to the top step of the podium with a win in C Grade.
Buoyed by a convincing win by his beloved Cats on Friday night Mansell had an up and down round, mixing some impressive golf with disappointing wipes before carding 40 points.
Runner-up Shaun Martin (29) was another who had his struggles but kept at it, while Michael Millhouse (29) claimed third, winning a count back with a great second half of 21 points to add to his 15 on the front nine.
Rosemary Martland was a clear winner in the Ladies Stableford competition on Saturday, with her 37 points being the only player to score over their handicap.
Martland (12) set up her win with a solid run of pars through the early part of her round.
Despite a double bogey on the 7th, she still turned with 19 points and three pars on the back accounted for splits of 41 off the stick on each nine.
A count-back was needed to split Geraldine Scott and Viv Wilson, tied on 31 points each.
Scott may have thought she had thrown it away with just 15 points over the inward nine, but it was still two more than what Wilson scored.
It was a tight chase to the finish in Tuesday’s Par competition at the BLGC with a number of players vying for the win right up to the closing holes.
Matt Davidson (25) turned after the front nine with three plusses in his pocket but gave all of them back to finish square with his handicap to finish sixth.
Dave Adkins (13) had a plus for the taking on the 17th, five metres from the pin and two putts up his sleeve for a plus, only to three putt and walk off square.
The next four players all finished tied on +1 needing a count back to decide the three prize places.
Rob Ellis (11) imploded with a double bogey scrub on the 17th which relegated him back to fourth, Russell Lingham (21) having a roller-coaster round to finally finish on +1 which he scored on the front nine, David Dowie (10) scrubbed the last to hand the win to Nathan Muhovics (23) who nailed it with a par on the last.
It was a good comeback by Muhovics who had -1 on the front nine and 4 impressive pars on the back nine.
