MICHAEL Rees had the perfect strategy for Saturday’s rarely-played Bisque Par competition at the Mount Gambier Golf Club.
It had little to do with the format, which allows golfers to use their allocated handicap on whichever holes they want, rather than having to accept whatever the Golf Australia handicap system gives you.
Playing off just seven, Rees decided he would try to keep one shot up his sleeve for the 18th in case he needed it to try to help him and his partner win the unit competition.
Combined with the fact he played well, the idea worked a treat.
He ended up signing for a +4, good enough to take out A Grade by a single shot from John Gosling and also pocketed a handy 19 units.
The complaint golfers have about the normal par competition format is if they birdie a hole they get a shot on, they still only get a +1 for the hole.
But under the Bisque Par scoring system, if they make a birdie on one of those holes they can elect to save that shot for another hole where they might not get one, but they still get +1 on the hole they birdied.
Playing in perfect conditions on Saturday, Rees made the ideal start, going one up after making a birdie four on the first hole without having to use any of his handicap.
He followed that with a par four on the second hole, one of just two holes on the front nine where he would normally get a shot.
But instead of taking that shot and going two up, he elected to save it for later and just take a half.
“I haven’t been playing the third very well and I don’t normally get a shot there, so I thought I might need it on that hole,” Rees said.
As it turned out he did not, making a birdie three with a putt from about 12 feet to go to +2 without having used any of his handicap.
Bogeys on the fourth and fifth holes dropped him back to square after he elected not to use any of his seven shots.
He was happy with that after going back to +1 with another birdie on the par 3 sixth hole after hitting his tee shot to inside five feet.
He used his first shot for the day on the par 5 seventh hole, taking a half after making a bogey and then moved back to +2 after yet another birdie on the par 3 eighth.
A par on the ninth kept him at +2 for the front nine and still with a handy six shots available on the back nine.
He used one of those on the par 3 10th hole to go to +3 and was still on that score after the 17th, which left him one shot he would not normally get on the final hole.
On any other Saturday his par four would have been for a half but because of the way he used his seven handicap strokes he earned a plus to get to +4, good enough to win A Grade and the units.
“I was hitting greens and making putts so it was a good day,” Rees said.
“I worked out I would have probably had the same score in a normal par round but I was happy with the way I used my handicap.”
Rees finished one shot ahead of John Gosling who said he tried to play the round as he normally would in a standard par competition and made the turn square with the card after shooting a one-over 37.
That gave him four shots to use on the back nine, including one on the par 3 10th hole.
But a birdie meant he got a plus on the hole without needing to use the shot, saving it for the par-three 16th where he turned a bogey-four into a half instead of a loss.
As well as the plus on the 10th hole, Gosling picked up shots on the 15th thanks to a birdie and the 17th where he used one of his shots to turn a par four into another plus.
While Rees could not remember the last time he won a competition at the club, it was also a long-overdue win for David McPherson in B Grade after his wife Sue claimed bragging rights recently in the women’s competition.
McPherson finished on +3, one ahead of Mike Atwell, while newcomer Josh Harvey came in with +8 to win C Grade by three shots from Graham Thomas.
Meanwhile, early starter Andrew Noble won Thursday’s stableford competition with 39 points, one of just four players in the 107-strong field to beat their handicaps despite the excellent conditions.
Playing off a 16 handicap, Noble split his round 19/20, the exact same scores he had in his last victory just two months ago.
That was good enough to edge out Tony McGregor on a count back after he had 20 points on the front nine, but could manage just 19 on the back.
