WILL the leading qualifiers curse strike again in the 2022 Mount Gambier Golf Club The Barn Club Championships which move to the quarter and semi-finals stage on Sunday?
For the past two years, the players who topped the 36-hole qualifying stage of the tournament in A Reserve, B Grade and C Grade were all bundled out in the quarter-finals.
This year those looking to end that trend are Tony Revill (A Reserve), Matt McCallum (B Grade) and Zac Shanks (C Grade).
Revill will square off against No.8 qualifier Moryn Sullivan, McCallum will take on Darren Keding and Shanks comes up against Nick Morony in the quarters which will be contested at Attamurra on Sunday morning.
The winners in each of the quarter-finals will progress to the semi-finals which will be decided after lunch.
The top eight players in contention for the club championship – Darren Bilney, Hayden Schroder, Richard Gosling, Nic Moretti, Joel Mann, John Gosling, Mitch Handford and Jason Shanks – will also do battle, with Bilney and defending champion Schroder the clear favourites to progress through to the final.
They have both been spotted spending some extra practice time on the course in the past week or so which will mean their respective quarter-final opponents – Jason Shanks and Mitch Handford – will need to bring their best games to get through to the semi-finals.
While plenty of the quarter-finalists stepped out in Saturday’s stableford competition, it was Peter Fox who topped the leaderboard with an impressive 43 points.
The 11-handicapper shot a superb 76 off the stick, but modestly put the score down to “just a lucky round”.
Fox had a two-over par 38 on each nine, picking up 21 points on the front nine, with the highlights being a four-point birdie on the par 4 third hole and a three-point par on the ninth.
His back nine was even better, scoring three-point pars on the 10th, 12th and 14th holes and putting the icing on the cake with a four-point birdie on the par 5 11th.
His only one-pointers of the round came on the 16th and 18th, but he had built a big enough lead to hold off the challengers led by newcomer William Rowland who signed for 42 points.
Fox had a seven-point margin to spare over A Grade runner-up Garry McCormack, while Rowland took out C Grade by three from Port MacDonnell visitor Wade Chant.
In B Grade it was talented youngster Blake Schroder who took the honours with 37 points, finishing one point ahead of veteran Ian Ewart, with both showing they will be serious challengers in their grades in Sunday’s Club Championship quarter-finals.
Meanwhile in Thursday’s stableford competition it was another newcomer in David Millard who reaped the rewards of his hard work by returning 43 points to finish three ahead of Ken Whitehead.
Taking up the game last October after retirement, Millard made a mockery of his 33 handicap by picking up 23 points on the front nine, highlighted by four-points pars on the third and fifth holes.
He ran into some trouble on the back nine, wiping both par fives (the 11th and 15th), but picked up another four-point par on the 13th before making the first birdie of his short time in the game on the par 3 16th.
Not only did his five-foot putt find the middle of the cup for a two and five points, he also picked up five balls for winning the pro shot on the hole.
Playing off a six handicap, Whitehead shot an excellent 74 off the stick to secure 40 points and second place on a count-back from Sam Mainwaring.
