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AS well as the prestige of being an overall winner at the Blue Lake Golf Club, through the generosity of one sponsors, the club is able to offer an extra cash incentive to the winner of its par competition each month.
Taking home the prize for March was one of the newer members, Jordan Muhovics, who capitalised on his handicap (34) to take the win.
Muhovics got his score on the board early, making the turn with +3 under his belt.
His form deserted him slightly over the back nine but he held on to take the victory from a chasing pack.
In a game which traditionally is harder for low handicap golfers to fare well, the A Grade place-getters returned scores in the positive.
In fact four of them finished with +2, requiring a count-back.
Former scratch golfer Marc Dalton prevailed thanks to his blistering back nine.
It was a slippery dip of a round initially for the talented Dalton, with four birdies sprinkled in with four non-scoring holes.
His back nine featured all pars except for his birdie on the 17th hole.
While most players just breaking into A Grade struggle with their handicap, John Millhouse is the exception with a swing any A Grade player would be proud of.
Millhouse parred the last hole to reach +2 overall and took second place thanks to his better score over the back nine.
While Trevor McLean could consider himself hard done by in the count-back system, he was also fortunate to see off Stephen Easterbrook for third place.
McLean’s eagle on the 17th helped get him over the line.
It was just as tight in B Grade, this time with four golfers finishing on +3.
It was Craig Donaldson who claimed the honours, with all his scoring done on the back nine, while Ross Jewell wilted somewhat over the same holes.
Turning with +3 he would have thought the crown was his but his score of square with his handicap over the inward nine was still good enough to hang on to second.
With count-backs there is always a hard luck story and this week Derek Sargeant was on the wrong side of the ledger, losing third place to Brendan Lunnay over the last six holes.
There were clear-cut winners in C Grade, with the more experienced golfers showing their guile.
The most senior of the lot, Vic Smith, claimed the grade win with his +3.
After the front nine Smith would have crashed his golf cart in surprise if you told him he was going to take the win, with a lot of red ink on his score card.
It was the back nine where he came good, earning all his plusses thanks to a 45 off the stick.
Alex Joukoff and David Lock took out the minor placings respectively.
While Sargeant missed out on third place in B Grade, he leads the list of ball winners, together with Garry Von Duve (+2), Easterbrook, Brad Talbot, Jarrod Ryan, Colin Ferguson(+1), Robert Lindner, David McKenzie, Steve Jelly and Jamie Walters on square.
Jay Ilsley had his radar on target to pick up both pro shots on the fifth and 16th holes, while Scott Sawyer was just as accurate on the 14th to win the nearest to pin prize.
