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THE Blue Lake Golf Club held its annual presentation night last week where all the award winners were presented with their trophy’s or certificates won over the previous year.
Meanwhile, Stephen Smith waited a day to collect his own prize as winner in the monthly par competition.
The most solid of constructions always start with a good foundation and Smith laid that early, opening with three successive pars for a +2 start.
The talented B Grade golfer who was instrumental in getting the driving range complex to where it is today, only found trouble on the signature par 3 fifth hole, which he scrubbed.
Another par on the ninth saw him turn with a +3.
He soon found trouble on the opening hole of the back nine with a nil points but that was only a momentary blip as he went on to construct a score of +4 on the back nine to take the win.
The threat of slipping back a grade was enough impetus for A Grader David Dowie to get his game back into form and he almost needed a shopping trolley to carry all the plusses he gained in his round.
An almost-perfect front nine where he went 36 off the stick earned him a score of +4.
The only real trouble he found all day happened on the 13th hole where he had a double bogey.
That was only a minor stumble as he still managed to add another plus to his overall tally, finishing on +5.
Stephen Easterbrook chased hard and almost caught Dowie over the last few holes, scoring pars at will and adding plusses to his tally, but he also found trouble on the roadside 13th with his own double bogey.
There was a five-way count-back for third place, with Michael Watts, Mike Dedonatis, Aaron O’Donnell, Trevor Callis and Jarrod Ryan all finishing on +3.
Watts eventually got the prize thanks to his +3 over the back nine.
B Grade winner Matt Pritchard took some time to get going but once he did there was no stopping him.
The 18 handicapper did not score a plus until the seventh hole but then proceeded to reel off six in a row.
Another to find trouble on the 13th hole, he soon regrouped with two pars on the 16th and 17th earning him further plusses for a +5 total.
Tony Brooks started his journey back to A Grade by claiming second place.
Brooks had an all-or-nothing type of round, his run of pars on the closing stages of the front nine earning him the majority of his plusses.
Turning +2 he was unable to add to that total.
That score was still enough to see off Matt Roscow, who tied with Brooks on +2 but got relegated to third after a count-back.
In C Grade the ever-improving Curtis Coppetti joined the winner’s circle once again with his score of +4 taking the main prize.
Coppetti did all his scoring on the front nine, walking to the 10th tee with three plusses in his pocket.
Unfortunately a rough patch of minus holes hurt his score overall but still managed a win with +4. Another count-back was needed to separate the minor prizes, with Dieter Rostig and Conway Johnson finishing on +3.
Rostig stormed home with +5 over the back nine to claim the silver medal.
Johnson had a real purple patch on the 15th and 16th holes, with an eagle and birdie respectively.
All ball winners needed to better their handicap to claim a prize, headed by the A Grade players involved in the minor count-back as well as Ben Mackay and Jamal Jakubenko on +2, plus Garry Gox, Kevin Howell and Marc and Zeick Dalton on +1.
