Former club champion Matthew ”Oppy” Opperman is determined to stamp his authority back on this title, taking a 5 stroke lead over the field with 80 off the stick in the first qualifying round on Saturday. Pre race favourites Patrick Hallion and Mark ”Mouldy” Millward share second place with 85. Colourful local identity Philip “Tommo” Thomson leads B Grade and big “BigTrev” Maxted leads C Grade.
Standings by grade
NAME
H’CAP
Grade
7-May
Matt Opperman
8
A
80
Pat Hallion
8
A
83
David Robinson
9
A
88
Gus Wenzel
9
A
91
Phil Thomson
12
B
89
Andrew Phillips
15
B
91
Richard Matz
14
B
94
Chris Waters
14
B
97
Peter Rundell
15
B
100
Peter Weiss
20
C
95
Trevor Maxted
21
C
93
Ben Dunstan
26
C
107
It is early days yet with 3 more rounds to play. With 4 players to qualify for match play in each grade C grade is still a man short. The second round was played today so we look forward to seeing the progress in the next few days.
Pat Hallion won today’s stableford in a 3 way count back defeating Philip “Tommo” Thomson & the congenial Neil Webster. Neil took an unbeatable lead in the first 9 only to fritter it away on the run home. Pat & Tommo’s cards were very similar with the count back going down to the last 6 holes.
Paul Smedley collected the Mars Bar for his trip home to Denmark.
Mark “Mouldy” Millward ended the school holidays by following up his win on the previous Tuesday with 3 up in a par round on Saturday to beat the unlucky Big Trev Maxted on a countback. Michael Shepley finished on +1 while Dick Cleland was square.
Club Captain, Russell “Gus The Good Guy” Wennzel, took the Mars Bar with a very disappointing score of -8.
Mouldy displays the Carnoustie Swing with an iron on hole 11 (file photo).
Mark “Mouldy” Millward finally broke for through for a win on Tuesday. Unfortunately this does not represent an improvement in form, but rather the rest of the field fell back to his standard. Mouldy scored 30 stableford points, with Richard “Pickles” Matz runner up with 29.
While welcome rain fell for most of the day and only 4 players completed the round, the weather cannot be blamed for the poor scores. The ladies played a stroke round at much the same time and Glenys Pierce won with a net 73 (equivalent to 35 stableford points).
Russell (Gus The Good Guy) Wenzel took the Mars Bar.
David “Jack” Webster scored a fantastic 41 stableford points to win the coveted Anzac Cup. Unfortunately the performance of the rest of the field was no better than Saturday. Runner up was Richard “Pickles” Matz with 32 on a count back from Dick Cleland. The field was book ended by the Webster brothers with Neil Webster taking the Mars Bar on a count back from Pat Hallion.
To say that Saturday’s scores were disappointing would be overstating the performance of our club members.
Dick Cleland stepped off the links extremely disappointed at the missed opportunities and lapses during his round. You can imagine his dismay when he discovered that his was the best score of the day. On top of that his Four Ball Better Ball score of a mere 38 with the genial Bob Perry was good enough to win the Four Ball as well.
As you peruse the scores below you will see that only four of the fourteen players scored 30 points or more. While the wind was quite strong at times conditions were really quite good for golf. You should not accept attempts to blame the weather by any player.
Fans will be particularly concerned by the lacklustre performance of local sporting identity Philip “Tommo” Thomson. His score of 23 does not auger well with club championships coming up.
The greatest ignominy of the day goes to Mark Millward and Peter Rundell who could only scrape together 21 points each. Peter took the Mars Bar on a count back.
Pat Hallion showed dynamic form in storming home with 39 points. Pat’s front 9 was afflicted by poor chipping and putting, i.e. 2 chips, 2putts; 1 chip 3 putts. Despite this he completed the front 9 with 18 points. On the back 9 Pat’s chipping and putting jumped into gear. He was unstoppable coming home with 21. Runner up was Dick Cleland started well but could not match the Master on the back 9.
Watch out for Pat in the club championships.
In another remarkable change of form, last Tuesday’s winner, Michael Shepley, took the Mars Bar.
From 26 stableford points on Tuesday to net 66 on Saturday. This incredible form reversal by Richard “Pickles” Matz requires investigation. Pickles stunned his opponents with a magnificent display of power golf combined with exquisite ball control around the greens. Runner up was the enigmatic Mark “Mouldy” Millward with what would normally be a competitive score of net 69.
The Mars bar went to David “Jack” Webster because 3 players failed to complete the course. I will not name these players but their names are listed at the bottom of the results, should you be interested.
Michael Shepley took no chances on Tuesday April 12 of losing in a count back. Michael spreadeagled the field scoring 39 and beating runner up, Neil Webster, by 3 points.
The performance of Richard “Pickles” Matz is causing some concern, as he took the Mars Bar by a comfortable margin.
