FORMER East Gambier premiership player Matthew McCallum has begun kicking goals in his new sporting career, as a golfer.
The 27-year-old, who decided to hang up his footy boots after a fourth concussion, topped the leaderboard in Saturday’s stableford competition at the Mount Gambier Golf Club with 41 points.
“I played golf when I was in high school … I think I got my handicap down to about 13,” he said.
“But I gave that away and played footy, and then in summer I used to go up to Swan Reach and do some wakeboarding and water skiing.”
With only a handful of competitive rounds under his belt since returning to the golf course last year, McCallum played off a 17 handicap on Saturday, and notched up a decent 19 points on the front nine.
But he quickly built some momentum with three-point pars on the 10th and 11th holes, before adding an invaluable four-pointer on the par 4 12th thanks to a superb drive, a handy pitch from about 50 metres and a 12-foot putt that found the bottom of the cup for birdie.
He had the chance to build on that after reaching the 13th in two, but a three-putt cost him a point, although he made up for that with more three-point pars on both the 14th and 15th holes.
A super score looked possible after he reached 37 points with three holes to play, but a double bogey, bogey, bogey finish restricted him to 41 points, although that turned out to be the equal best of the day, finishing ahead of William Rowland on a count-back.
“I three-putted 16 as well as the 13th and I really didn’t have much luck with the putter on the front nine either,” McCallum said.
“I reckon I left about five shots out there so hopefully I can get down to about 10, or maybe even single figures.”
The win saw his handicap cut by two strokes to 15 and his 41 points gave him victory in B Grade, finishing a single point ahead of recent winner Darren Keding.
Rowland’s 41 was good enough to take out C Grade, again just one point ahead of Nick Seager.
In A Grade it was Jim Leane who claimed top prize with a relatively modest 38 points.
Playing off a seven handicap, Leane was on fire early, just one over par off the stick through 14 holes.
But he stumbled with double-bogeys on the 15th and 16th holes for no addition to his tally, before recovering with pars on the final two holes to finish with 38 points, one ahead of Peter Fox and Gordon Clark, Fox taking second on a count-back.
Leane’s win in A Grade did not come out of the blue … he finished fourth in last Thursday’s stableford competition with 39 points.
On that occasion he managed just 16 points on the front nine, but caught fire on the back nine, shooting an even par 36 to add 23 points to his tally.
That was good enough for fourth behind runaway winner David Turnbull who came in with 43 points, three clear of Peter Lock and Trevor Williams, Lock taking second on a count-back.
The 81-year-old Turnbull is always in the first group to tee off every Thursday and Saturday, playing alongside fellow octogenarians Lyndsay Copeman and Bob Dalgarno, and Graham Greenwood, the “youngster” of the group at 74.
” We love each other’s company and I’m having a bit of a purple patch of form at the moment which makes it even more enjoyable,” Turnbull said.
Turnbull had a solid 20 points on the front nine, but four-point pars on the 10th and 14th holes proved the difference on the way home.
Not a long hitter, his short game was on show on those two holes, chipping to inside two feet on the 10th and to about 20 feet on the 14th before sinking an excellent putt.
Lock did a great job to finish second, shooting 76 off the stick from his eight handicap to come in with 40 points.
