AFTER striking the best form of his life in recent weeks, it seemed only a matter of time before Mount Gambier Golf Club member Patrick O’Donnell finally achieved his goal of shooting a round of even par 72 or better at Attamurra.
In the stableford competition last Thursday, he managed to take out the event with a one-under par of 71 and 40 points.
In late November to early December, O’Donnell shot rounds of 73, 74 and 73 in the space of nine days; the final one of the trio good enough to claim victory for the monthly medal in December.
On Thursday he put on an even better performance, firing 36 on the front nine and 35 on the back to break the hoodoo.
“It was good to finally do it … I was copping a bit of stick from my playing partners who had all done it,” the 49-year-old said.
“It probably could have been even better; I missed par putts on the 12th and 14th that were both no more than two feet from the hole.”
Luckily, he made up for at least one of those with a birdie putt from about 30 feet on the par three 16th hole which found the bottom of the cup.
O’Donnell’s round looked as if it would just fall short when he made a bogey six on the first hole after finding himself in the greenside bunker for four.
Pars on the second and third holes steadied his pace before he got back to square with a birdie on the par-four fourth hole after dropping a putt from about 15 feet.
More pars on the fifth and sixth holes were followed by another birdie on the par-five seventh hole when he finished just off the green for two, having no difficulty getting up-and-down after putting up close to the hole.
Unfortunately, he lost the momentum with a bogey on the signature par-three eighth hole, but a par on the ninth was good enough for an even par 36 along with 19 stableford points.
O’Donnell made three more birdies on the back nine – on the 11th, 15th and 16th holes – missing an eagle opportunity on the 15th when his second shot to the par-five stopped about 15 feet from the flag.
Pars on the final two holes had him come in with a 35 for 71 off the stick and 21 more points for a total of 40, good enough to claim the win by a single point from Ken Whitehead.
Peter Gardner was one further back on 38, edging out Peter Berkefeld for third on a count-back.
Last Thursday was also the final round of the Driscoll Summer Cup, where O’Donnell’s 40 points lifted him into third place on a total of 229 from his best six rounds of the three-month-long event.
The winner was Max Hellyer who could not improve on his tally prior to the final round, but finished on 240 points with an average of 40 per round, eight points ahead of runner-up Gordon Bignell.
Meanwhile the event last Saturday came in as a stableford multiplier.
Playing in pairs, the main objective was to ensure neither member of the duo had a wipe which automatically saw zero points go on the card.
At the end of the day it was the pairing of club champion Darren Bilney and Ian Ritter who finished on top of the leaderboard with 80 points.
The pair did their best work on the front nine picking up an impressive 50 points, the highlights being nine-pointers on the first and ninth holes with Bilney making three-point birdies on both and Ritter playing his part with three-point pars.
Their back nine was not to the standard of the front nine, with zero points on the 15th and 18th holes dragging their tally down to 30.
It was still good enough to finish a solitary point ahead of runners-up Phil McBain and William Rowland.
This team’s front nine was also their best, with a 12-pointer on the par-five seventh hole becoming the highlight thanks to a four-point par from Rowland and a three-point par from McBain.
Tony Geddes and Brad Von Duve were one point further back in third place on 78 points; their round getting a flying start on the first hole with 12 points jumping onto the card when Von Duve dropped in a four-point birdie and Geddes with a three-point par.
