BLUE Lake Golf Club’s Tuesday midweek stroke competition was won by James Rice from Steve Jelly.
Rice made use of his handicap of 31, playing under his handicap over the first six holes before he brought it all together with a par on the seventh hole to set himself up for the win after nine holes.
Turning with five under par the round was his for the taking and despite a couple of double bogeys to start the back nine he came home in front with a round of 94-31-63.
At the other end of the handicap scale Jelly owns a swing which Rice could do well to emulate.
Playing off seven there was little room for error and he turned with a 34 on the front nine thanks to birdies on the second and seventh to remain in the hunt.
All appeared well until the 14th hole where things went a bit wobbly with a double bogey hurting his chances for the win.
An easy birdie on the 17th gained back a shot but he had to settle for runner-up with a nett 65.
There was daylight back to third place which was contested between David Lamont and Michael Egan both finishing five strokes further back.
Both birdied the 17th, but Lamont had also birdied the 11th to earn himself a 38-off-the-stick.
Egan struggled to match that, specially after a triple on the 13th with a lost ball which cost him dearly in the count-back.
Colin Stratford won the pro shot as his ball finished 1.6m away from the cup on the fifth hole while Jelly picked up the novelty prize of least putts.
