THREE-time winner Darren Bilney may not have shot the best score of the day, but he certainly sent a message to the rest of the hopefuls in the first round of qualifying for The Barn Club Championship at the Mount Gambier Golf Club on Saturday.
After missing last year’s event, Bilney was satisfied with his round of two-over par 74, one behind Kevin Cook who unfortunately could not nominate for the event because he will not be here for round two of qualifying this weekend.
With the top eight players after the two rounds set to move through to the match-play phase of the competition, Bilney said his strategy was about just trying to get through rather than trying to shoot three-or-four under par first up.
“I’ll start thinking about it a bit more seriously once I get through qualifying,” he said matter-of-factly.
On Saturday he found himself in at least half-a-dozen bunkers, although he did manage to get up-and-down from three of them.
He actually did even better than that on the par-five 15th, holing his shot from the greenside bunker for an eagle to get his round back on track after a disastrous double-bogey six on the par-four 13th.
After missing the fairway right, his approach shot over trees finished just short of the green, but he needed another four to get down.
That compounded bogeys on both of the par-threes on the back nine – the 10th and 16th – each time finding the bunker off the tee and ending up with fours.
He ended up shooting 38 on the back nine, two worse than his even-par 36 on the front nine.
His round began with a regulation birdie on the par-five first hole, electing to play safe with a three-iron off the tee, followed by a six-iron onto the green and two putts.
He gave that shot back after bogeying the par-four third, but picked up a second birdie for the day on the par-four fourth hole when he bombed his drive to about 20m short of the green and had no trouble getting up-and-down for three.
Also well placed after the opening round of qualifying were Nic Moretti and Richard Gosling who both shot 75s, while last year’s finalists Hayden Schroder and Setio Prajogo-Shanahan were just one shot back with 76 apiece.
In A Reserve it was Bryan Pink who fired a round of 79 to sit three strokes clear of Moryn Sullivan and Stephen Easterbrook.
The big surprises in that grade were the scores turned in by big hitters Matthew Bowering (92) and Jason Mann (99) who will need to shoot super rounds this week to make it through qualifying.
In B Grade it was recent winner Matt McCallum who topped the scoresheet with an 86, two shots clear of Ian Ewert, Levi Morton and Jon Clayton.
Rob McLellan led the way in C Grade with a 92, one shot ahead of Kev Lennon with Nicholas Morony one further back on 94.
In D Grade in was youngster Zac Shanks who shot a terrific 90 off his 24 handicap, a score that would have seen him not only lead the way in C Grade, but also sit comfortably in the top eight in B Grade.
Meanwhile last Thursday’s stableford competition was taken out by Dane Handreck who signed for 44 points to spread-eagle the field and win by five points.
Coincidentally his only other win since taking up the game last year came in July when he also signed for 44 points, that time finishing seven clear of his nearest opposition.
This time he split his round 23/21, the highlight for the day being a four-point birdie on the par-four ninth hole and his only blemish being a wipe on the par-five 15th.
Runner-up was David Pike on 39 points, while Peter Ewer, the previous week’s winner, came in with 38 despite wiping the eighth and 11th holes.
