PROVING his win in Tuesday’s mid-week stableford competition at the Blue Lake Golf Club was no fluke last week, veteran Doug McPherson went even better by winning the Stuckey Electrical sponsored monthly medal.
McPherson, a BLGC life member, should know the course like the back of his hand, having walked and played on many occasions.
Starting safely with bogeys on his two opening holes, he kick started his round with a great par on the third hole but that proved to be a false dawn with a pair of sixes on the next two.
Turning with 46 meant he was two under his handicap of 26 and looking at a possible grade win.
With three pars on the back nine it did not take long for him to lift his sights and stake his claim for an outright win.
Despite a double-bogey on the 17th, McPherson made that possible, finishing his round with 90-26-64.
In the premier grade Derek Sargeant recorded a solid round of 79-11-68.
Things were going along nicely for Sargeant with three pars on his opening six holes before a double-bogey on the innocuous seventh put him out of step.
He countered that with a birdie on the ninth for a turn of 40 off the stick.
He kept the red ink off his scorecard and added another birdie on the 15th for an inward 39 and the win in A Grade.
Tree trouble on the par 3 16th hole cost Trevor McLean the grade win with a double-bogey.
Up to then he had a good round going with birdies on the sixth and 13th for equal splits of 38.
With his seven handicap he took second place with a nett 69.
Richard Kuhn visited parts of the course he had not seen before, opening with a double-bogey on the second hole. a triple on the fourth and a quadruple-bogey on the seventh before finishing with a birdie on the ninth.
However, after the turn he birdied the 13th and 17th for a turnaround of eight strokes and finished with a round of 82-12-70.
Luckily for Kuhn that strong finish held him in good stead for the count-back that eventuated with five players having that same score in A Grade.
Trevor Little, John Millhouse and Michael Watts all had equal splits, with 37, 41 and 40 respectively.
Perhaps the unluckiest of them all who tied on nett 70 was Anthony Williams off scratch.
His only blemish on the front nine was a bogey on the seventh hole but he more-than made up for that with birdies on the first, fifth and ninth for an outward two-under par 33.
He could not quite maintain that momentum over the back nine with just the one more birdie on the 17th but added another three bogeys to finish with 37.
Adam Dunn taught the rest of the B Grade players what was needed to win with his round of 83-16-67 good enough to be best in class.
Dunn had four pars on the front nine before he took too much on on the ninth and walked off with a bogey which he repeated on the 11th.
Michael Olle survived a count-back with Nicholas Driver to secure second place.
Driver had a great round going after 40 on the front nine before he hit tree after tree on the back nine for a closing 49 to be relegated back to third place.
In C Grade Vic Smith claimed the win with a superb round of 93-27-66.
Smith showed what he is capable of with pars on the front nine and another on the back where he only needed 45 strokes.
Ensuring bragging rights over his playing partner for another week at least, Richard Neale, like Kuhn, needed nine holes before he started to get his head right but then stormed home for splits of 50 and 44 for a nett 68.
Jacob Reed will be cursing the last hole for costing him a shot at the grade win.
After opening with 43, Reed added two more pars on the 10th and 12th holes to set him up to challenge for the outright win but then the wheels fell off with double bogeys on the 13th, 14th and 16th.
Ball winners included Brenton Speck, Little, Millhouse, Watts, Ken Milsop, Williams, Richard Evans, Stephen Von Duve, Alan Stewart, Barry Humphries, Kevin Mansell and Kevin Stark.
McLean took home some consolation balls with his pro shot on the fifth hole nearest to pin on the 14th, while Keith Ransom took out the other pro shot on the 16th and Kevin Howell was the B Grade NTP winner.
Novelty event winners were Vic Smith for least putts, Josh Gale and Anthony Williams (A Grade), Jake Matthews and Adam Dunn (B Grade) and Richard Dean and McPherson for C Grade.
