Saturday’s Pro Shop Stableford competition was the first qualifying round for this year’s Pro Shop Handicap Championships at the Mount Gambier Golf Club.
With the added incentive of the championships at stake, a good field of 114 entered. The early golfers had to endure thick fog for almost half of their round, while those playing later enjoyed near perfect conditions.
Best score of the day came from C Grade (17.0 – 45.0) player Brad McDonnell (27) with 41 points. McDonnell started slowly with a double bogie and two triple bogies in his first four holes.
However, he started to work into his round with the next five holes consisting of a par and four bogies to turn with 17 points.
McDonnell’s confidence must have been dented when he scored a quadruple bogie 7 on the par 3 10th, followed by a double bogie seven on the par 5 11th.
Something must have clicked, as he started to play golf more reminiscent of a single figure handicapper.
A par 4 on the 12th hole, followed by three bogies and then closing out with three pars to rack up 24 points in his last eight holes.
Runner up in C Grade was Cruz Bilney (45) with 38 points. Like McDonnell, Bilney scored 24 points on a nine – a great feat, but in Bilney’s case it was his front nine.
Bilney continued on his way on the back nine with four straight holes scoring two points, before two wipes on the par 4 14th and par 5 15th.
A par on the 16th would have pleased the young Bilney, before finally finishing with 14 points on the back nine.
In A Grade (-9.0 – 10) big hitting Craig Foster (7) took out the win with 40 points. Six pars and three bogies had Foster make the turn with 17 points, one behind his handicap.
Like McDonnell in C Grade, Foster was now warmed up and attacked the course to fire an even to the card 36 off the stick for the inward nine.
This consisted of seven pars, a birdie on the par 5 15th and a bogie on the par 4 17th.
A countback was required to determine second place in A Grade with Stacy Fiegert (9) and Jason Shanks (4) both finishing with 38 points.
It was Fiegert’s better inward nine score that gave him the win. Like Foster, Fiegert needed to get warmed up to play his best golf.
Turning with 16 points after his outward nine, a triple bogie six on the par 3 10th hole would not have gone down well.
But this just fired Fiegert up as he collected 22 point for his final eight holes, including birdies on the 15th and 18th holes.
Shanks shot splits of 18 and 20 points to post his 38 points.
B Grade (11-16) replicated the A Grade results, with the winner scoring 40 points and second spot decided by a countback with two players finishing on 38 points.
Tony Revill (12) hit the leaders’ board after a prolonged absence, with his 40 points. Revill started well birdieing the opening hole before finishing his front nine with two double bogies, two bogies and four pars, to score 19 points. Revill added a further 21 points on the back nine, highlighted by a pair of birdies on the 13th and 16th holes.
Shayne Hosking (13) just managed to edge out Peter Berkefeld (15) by the narrowest of margins to take the runner’s up spot. Both Hosking and Berkefeld had splits of 20 points on the front and 18 on the back, but it was Hosking who finished strongly with four pars which nudged him in front.
Other players to beat their handicaps on the day with 37 points included Philip Bliss (12), Andrew Stark (3), Nick Atwell (15) and Craig Wirth (8).
