TWO players who had days to forget in the finals of the club championships last month bounced back to finish first and second in Saturday’s aggregate stableford competition at the Mount Gambier Golf Club.
Tony Revill admitted he played “absolutely atrocious golf” in the A Reserve final, losing 11 and 9 to Bryan Pink.
But despite a recent encounter with Covid, the 54-year-old bounced back to score a combined 78 points with partner Kev Lennon to finish four points clear of the field on Saturday.
They were one of just two pairs where both players beat their handicaps.
The other was the father/son combination of Hayden and Blake Schroder who both scored 37 points to finish a clear second.
Hayden also made it to the finals of the club championships, beaten 8 and 7 by Darren Bilney in what was also one of his worst days for a long time.
Co-incidentally, Saturday’s round also saw Hayden back on the course after a recent bout of Covid.
It was Revill and Lennon who took top honours however, although the start to their rounds was like chalk and cheese.
Playing off an 11 handicap and starting on the 10th tee, Revill picked up three-point pars on four of his first five holes, all of them coming from good chipping and/or putting.
Lennon on the other hand had just five points after his first four holes, but stepped up the pace with a three-point par on the 14th after putting to tap-in range from off the green.
Solid finishes to their first nine holes saw them make the turn with a combined 38 points, Revill contributing 21 of those.
It looked as though they may have wasted that solid start when they both added just six points after the first four holes on the front nine.
But both players did their best work late, as Lennon picked up 14 points from the final five holes.
And Revill matched that, helped in no small part by a chip-in birdie on the par-three 8th hole.
He followed that with the team’s only four-pointer of the day, as he picked up a birdie on the ninth hole.
“Kev also made a long putt on the 9th for par so it was a good finish,” Revill said.
“I missed easy short putts on the 3rd and 15th, but I also made a few good ones.
“It was just one of those days where pretty-much everything clicked.”
The Schroders started their round on the 1st tee in the afternoon groups, Hayden saying he was aware what the score to beat was.
“Somebody said a 78 was already in, so I said to Blake we both needed 40 points to have a shot at winning,” he said.
They weren’t far off that after their first nine holes, as Hayden notched 20 points after shooting a two-under par 34, and Blake added 19 despite a slow start.
They couldn’t quite keep that up on the back nine as Hayden scored 17 Blake added 18.
That gave them 74 for the day, two clear of third-placed Phillip Walters and David Pick.
Meanwhile in last Thursday’s stableford competition it was a three-way tie at the top, with Wayne Sampson, Craig Foster and Archie Milich all signing for 39 points.
After the countback it was Sampson who took the top prize, thanks to 22 points on the back nine.
Playing off a 25 handicap, Sampson notched three-pointers on the 10th, 11th, 16th, 17th and 18th to help seal the deal.
Foster took second prize after both he and Milich split their rounds 20/19.
Foster was left wondering what might have been after having pick-ups on the 4th and 10th holes.
