EVEN though the weather remained mild for the day, the heavy underfoot conditions meant that scoring was hard to come by in Saturday’s stableford competition at the Blue Lake Golf Club.
Brett Lewis enjoyed the tough conditions, swapping his sea legs for golf sprigs, to take the outright win with 39 points.
Having seen his handicap tumble recently, Lewis now gets just the one shot on each hole (18 handicap) and he made the most of that with 23 points on the front nine from three pars and a birdie on the eighth.
The swell got a bit tougher over the back nine, but he strung a couple of pars together to right the ship.
It was slim pickings from then on in, scoring just another 10 points over the last six holes, but he had enough runs on the board to secure the win.
Valued club volunteer John Millhouse took out the A Grade win thanks to banking a winning score over the front nine, starting with four pars and a tap-in birdie on the par 3 fifth hole.
Turning with 21 points, Millhouse would have been looking to a strong finish, but he binned the 11th and 12th, scoring just the one point.
As good golfers do he put that behind him and dug deep for 15 points over the last six holes to post a one-point win.
There was a trio of golfers chasing hard for the win behind Millhouse, with Bob White, Aaron O’Donnell and Chad Chewter all finishing tied on 37 points.
White ended up getting the cheese thanks to a strong finish of birdie, par, birdie for 11 points.
It was a case of what could have been for White, managing to finish with 18 points after three wipes on the 10th, 11th and 15th holes.
A simple two points on each of those would have seen him take the outright win easily.
O’Donnell also opened the front nine with 19 points and was a lot more consistent than White, but came up two points shy over the last three holes.
Chewter had the better front nine out of the three of them, but he copped a double bogey on the last which hurt his count-back chances.
Another player to finish on 37 points was former West Gambier champion cricketer Fred Knight who always brightens a dull day with his golfing apparel.
Knight turned at the halfway point just behind his handicap with 17 points, but then settled in for the long game with pars on the 12th, 13th and 15th holes to finish with another 20 points and take out the B Grade win.
Escaping the South East winter and basking in the Queensland sun obviously agreed with second-placed John Robertson, who learnt from a difficult round at Dunk Island golf course to have 35 points.
Overcoming a sluggish start where he wished he was still on holiday, Robertson excelled with a tap-in birdie on the 12th on his way to a 19 point inward nine, despite two non-scoring holes.
After a promising front nine David Gould could not quite maintain the momentum and slipped back to third with 34 points.
While no C Grade player managed to break their handicap, Robert Johncock was the best in the grade with a winning score of 35.
Johncock battled on manfully and after turning with 17 points, still managed to bring it home with another 18 despite a no-score hole on the 15th.
Cory Davis and Shaun Martin filled the minor placings.
A and B Grade players filled the list of ball winners, headed by the unlucky Chewter and Rob Ellis 36, Derek Sargeant, Stephen Easterbrook 35, Trevor Little, Tim Bates 34, Colin Ferguson 33, Bryan Scott, Brett Perryman and Bruce Grubb on 32.
Nearest to pins went to Scott (A Grade) and Chris Hoggan (B), while the pro shots were won by Jamie Walters on the fifth and John Kamp on the 16th.
