IF retired school principal Grant Stephenson was “pretty chuffed” to notch a long overdue win five weeks ago, then he was absolutely thrilled to repeat the dose in Saturday’s stableford competition at the Mount Gambier Golf Club.
Back in September the 75-year-old was off a 20 handicap when he turned in a 39-point round to finish one point ahead of his rivals in windy conditions at the Attamurra layout.
That cost him one stroke, but it made little difference on Saturday when he produced a fantastic 43 points to finish on top of the leaderboard, taking top spot from Daniel Whitehead on a count-back.
On a day when torrential rain early in the morning saw several players pull the pin on their rounds, Whitehead, making a return to the game after a long hiatus, made light work of the wet conditions to set up a big lead among the morning players.
But Stephenson, who started his round on the 10th tee in the afternoon group, produced his best round of the year to get the chocolates.
A self-confessed poor putter, he started with one-putt pars on the 10th and 11th holes to have six points on the board early.
“I usually only expect to have one, one-putt green in a round so I thought that would be it for the day for me,” he said.
He followed that hot start with three, two-point holes, before the putting blues returned with a three-putt for just a single point on the par 5 15th.
But in a sign that it might have been his day, the 19-handicapper rolled in a 25-footer for par and four points on the long par 4 17th hole.
With 21 points in the bag after his first nine, Stephenson continued his good form with nine more on the first four holes of his second nine.
As anyone who struggles with the flat stick knows, hitting a chip or pitch dead, or even in, is a great feeling.
So it was on the par 4 fifth hole when he chipped in from just off the green for a birdie and his second four-pointer of the day.
The final four holes were solid, with a three-point par on the eighth helping him add 22 points on the front to his 21 on the back to lead the field and finish three points ahead of Mitchell Broome in C Grade.
“When you get to may age, and with my handicap, there’s no pressure on you to win,” Stephenson said.
“You just play to have fun.”
Whitehead, whose handicap has already dropped from 18 to 14 since he returned to the game in recent weeks, also split his round 22/21, the highlight being a four-point birdie on the par 4 fourth hole.
His score was easily good enough to win B Grade, finishing five points clear of Bryan Hunt.
In A Grade it was Thomas Madigan who returned 40 points to take out that division, coming in a single point ahead of recent winner Clint Mitchell.
Meanwhile better weather conditions on Thursday saw an incredible 29 players beat their handicaps, with 11 of those scoring 40 points or more.
At the end of the day a count-back was needed to separate Graham Thomas and Peter Collie, with Thomas getting the nod after they both had 43 stableford points.
Thomas, playing off a 23 handicap, had 44 shots on each nine which saw him score 20 points on the front and an impressive 23 on the back.
That was good enough to edge out Collie who had 39 off the stick on each nine, which translated to 22 points on the front but “only” 21 on the back nine where the count-backs are decided.
