FOUR-TIME Mount Gambier Golf Club champion Hayden Schroder is the first to admit he is not playing his best golf.
But he has still done well enough to qualify second for this year’s edition ahead of the quarter-finals and semi-finals which will both be played on Sunday, March 20.
After two rounds of qualifying, it was Darren Bilney who earned the No.1 seeding with scores of 74 and 73.
Schroder was in the No.2 spot after rounds of 76, 76.
The defending champion said all the parts of his game had worked at various times over the two rounds, just not all at the same time.
“The first week I wasn’t driving or hitting my irons particularly well, but my putting was pretty good,” Schroder said.
“Then last week I started to hit the ball better, but my putting was off.”
That was no more evident than on the par 4 ninth hole when he had a putt of about three feet for par but walked off with a double-bogey six.
He also three-putted on the par 3 16th hole for his second double of the day, but kept the damage to a minimum thanks to birdies on the eighth, 11th and 12th.
“I’ve still been having a lot of birdie putts and making a few which is pretty important in the match-play part of the championships,” Schroder said.
With the top eight going through to the next phase, Bilney will take on Jason Shanks and Schroder will face off against talented teenager Mitch Handford.
Richard Gosling finished third overall to set up a quarter-final against his brother John, while big-hitting leftie Nick Moretti will do battle with Joel Mann in the other quarter-final.
The tightest battles could be in A Reserve where just five shots separated the top eight qualifiers, easily the smallest number in any of the grades.
A count-back was needed to split the top three scorers, with Tony Revills’ rounds of 85, 81 getting the nod ahead of Gordon Clark and Bryan Pink.
Revill will come up against Moryn Sullivan in the first quarter-final, with Clark to take on Bryce Whicker and Pink squaring off against Rob Harkness.
The last of the quarter-finals in that grade will be a battle of the big hitters, with Stephen Easterbrook taking on Josh Knowles who took out the A Reserve title last year.
In B Grade in was Matt McCallum who finished in top spot after rounds of 86, 87.
The recent East Gambier Football Club premiership player had a four-shot margin over second-placed Levi Morton, with Jon Clayton and Tony Geddes rounding out the top four.
In the quarters it will be McCallum against Darren Keding, Morton against Tony McGregor, Clayton will take on Haydn Dow and Geddes will face Ian Ewert.
In C Grade it was youngster Zac Shanks who topped the leaderboard, finishing an impressive six shots ahead of Rob McLellan after rounds of 90, 94.
That means Shanks will play Nick Morony in the quarters, while Morton will take on last year’s D Grade champion Blake Schroder.
Newcomer Asim Cheema, who climbed to third overall after taking out last Saturday’s Monthly Medal with a net 67, will square off with veteran Max Tollner, while Graham Robinson and Peter Emetlis will also do battle for a spot in the semi-finals.
Cheema, who hits the ball a long way, although not always straight, will no doubt have come to the attention of the handicapper after shooting a 92 off the stick from his 25 handicap.
That was three clear of runner-up Revill, while five players were another shot back after returning rounds of net 71.
The best round of the day was turned in by Anthony Williams who shot a one-under par 71 off his handicap of +1 to finish with a net 72.
Meanwhile Andrew Noble returned to the winner’s circle after a long absence last Thursday, his 39 stableford points good enough to take top spot by one point from Paul Kenny.
Noble split his round 19/20, making up for double-bogeys on the ninth and 10th holes with four pars on the way home to claim top spot.
Kenny was left wondering what might have been after wipes on the third and ninth holes proved costly.
The highlight of the day was a hole-in-one scored by Nic Clayton on the eighth hole.
Hitting a pitching wedge off the tee to a front pin, Clayton’s ball landed a couple of metres short, rolling perfectly up to and into the hole.
It was the first hole-in-one since Graham Greenwood achieved the feat on the same hole back in October last year.
