RAIN, heavy hail storms and cold winds affected field numbers, but did not deter 56 dedicated golfers when the Mount Gambier Golf club held its par round last Saturday.
Two severe hail storms during the mid morning made life difficult for those out on the course, along with those who were about to embark on one of the coldest competition days this winter in the South East.
B Grade once again produced the best score of the day with Bryce Cutting holding off Darren Griffin to win on a countback with two-up.
Cutting opened strongly to be three-up at the turn, mainly due to five pluses and after his par on the 10th he was sitting in a strong position.
He faltered a little on the back nine to finish one-down and two-up overall.
Griffin had a similar opening nine and birdied the difficult into-the-wind par four second to turn at three-up.
In A Grade club captain Adrian Ballintyne had an up-and-down day being two-down at the halfway point, but finished well to be square.
On the outward journey he wiped the first two holes, birdied six and then wiped the eighth.
A birdie on 18 left him square overall, just ahead of club champion Daryl Morgan.
It was just another day at the office for the scratch golfer with three bogies and two birdies leaving him one-under for the day and 73 off-the-stick, which in the conditions was an outstanding effort.
Chris Gabriel had the best story of the day.
After nine holes he was four-down, but in a sensational reversal came home four-up to finish square and win C Grade from Andrew Noble on two-down.
When he left the clubhouse Gabriel’s pockets were bulging with the cash he took from his playing partners.
Once again the long markers found the wet, cold and heavy conditions difficult with Tony Bolton taking the D Grade honours with three-down on a countback from Graham Smy.
Other leading scorers were Jim Leane (square), Damian Smith (one-down), Joe Clements, Rob McIntyre (two-down), Kevin Lennon, Brad Von Duve, Paul Reade, Michael Rees, Peter Jennings (three-down) and Max Tollner (four-down).
While John Gosling did not play well he would have been happy with his tee shots on the eighth and 16th, taking out both pro shots, but failing to drop either birdie.
The birdie balls went to Ballintyne, Stacy Fiegert and McIntyre.
The women played a stableford competition with Lois Harvey scoring a credible 33 points to win from Betty McKechnie and Evonne Shirley on 24 points.
Shirley took the pro shot on the eighth.
