IT was probably the best birthday present Brad Talbot could have wished for in Tuesday’s stableford competition at the Blue Lake Golf Club.
Talbot took a while to unwrap the best of his presents, birdies on the sixth and seventh helping him turn at the half-way mark equal with his handicap of four and 18 points.
The biggest surprise happened on the 12th hole where a wayward drive required him to manufacture a shot towards the 13th tee block and hopefully finish somewhere close on the green.
To his delight his pitch shot was perfect and found the cup for an eagle and four points.
Another three-point par on the difficult 13th had him set up for a good finish.
He turned that good finish into a great round with a birdie on the last for four points and splits of 18 and 23 for a massive 21 points.
It is always good to see a low handicapper master the course and get the rewards for a superb round of golf.
Talbot finished two points clear of the nearest competitors, Geoff Munt and Chris Hoggan.
Munt had an interesting front nine, mixing some great pars with a couple of one-point holes and a wipe altogether on the ninth.
He knuckled down early in his inward nine, two three-point pars being eclipsed with a birdie on the 16th for four points on his way to an inward 23.
Luckily for Munt he chose to do all his scoring on the back nine which helped him in the count-back with Hoggan.
Hoggan had his own great round going with 20 points on the front and after a three-point par on the 16th he was eyeing off an outright win.
Unfortunately trouble found him on the 17th hole where he could only manufacture the single point which ended up costing him dearly and relegated him back to third place overall.
Scores of 36 or better were needed for a ball prize which included Michael Dawe, Ben Pudney 38, Graham Burke, Wayne Dunford, Russell Lingham, Stephen Easterbrook 37, David Lovie and Michael Egan on 36.
Talbot’s eagle on the 12th hole cleaned out the eagle’s nest while Pudney won the novelty event of best front nine.
