A STRONG performance from Matt Dwyer saw him claim an emphatic victory at the Blue Lake Golf Club recently.
Most golfers will tell you they have a preferred competition, be it normal stroke, stableford or an Ambrose.
Not many will nominate Par, being a sudden death type format of either scoring or not.
However, Matt Dwyer has added it to his favourites list after dominating Saturday’s Jens Hotel sponsored Par event.
It was a hot start for Dwyer with four plusses in a row after four holes and with the relatively easy fifth hole in front of him, he was expecting that run to continue.
However, he soon crashed back down to Earth with a double bogey.
Bogeys on the seventh and eighth holes still earned the 30 handicapper a plus on each and after nine he was sitting pretty with +4.
His strong form continued into the back nine with only the one wipe on the 11th hole.
Dwyer’s three bogeys all resulted in plusses and while four pars on the back nine helped him to close with 43 off the stick, to claim the overall victory with a very impressive score of +10.
It was a big drop back to Dwyer’s closest competitor with +2 being the next best and a number of players claimed that score.
A Grade’s Marc Dalton and Ian Bown both tied on +2.
Dalton had a near-perfect front nine with pars on every hole except the fifth, a hole he failed to capitalise on and the ninth, which he birdied for an unexpected plus.
However, he was unable to maintain his strong form on the front nine after he opened the back nine with consecutive wipes.
Dalton added three plusses over the inward nine but he negated them with pick ups.
His closing score of square was still good enough to hand on for the grade win, as Bown faltered as well with -1 over the back.
Bown went one better than Dalton over the front nine, with a 36 off the stick.
This included a birdie on the ninth and ended the outward nine on +3.
Wipes on the 12th, 14th and 16th holes hurt his round but it was still a good round of golf to celebrate his retirement.
Damian Dixon showed glimpses of the type of golf which makes him a true A grader with birdies on the 6th and 17th holes.
However, he needs to add consistency to his game to take him to the next level after he survived a count-back from Stephen Easterbrook to take third place with his +1.
Fred Knight was another golfer to end the day on +2.
His round was enough for him to claim the B Grade honours in a count-back from John Kamp.
Surprisingly after doing all his scoring on the front nine, Knight was awarded first place after his splits of +2 and 0.
It was a similar story for Kamp who started his round strongly with an impressive score of +3 on the opening nine holes.
However, he was unable to make the most of his strong start after he faltered slightly on the inward nine with -1.
It was a similar story for the third-placed Wayne Dunford, after he scored +2 on the front nine but struggled after the turn.
An opening wipe on the 10th hole was followed by two more minuses over the inward nine, which dealt the damage despite impressive pars on the 16th and 17th.
Dunford narrowly held on for the minor prize after beating Adrian O’Donnell in a count-back.
Heading the list of players to finish on +2 was C Grade winner William Von Stanke.
Making full use of his favourable handicap of 35, Von Stanke was able to add plusses to his card even through bogey golf.
A par on the third hole showed he has the ability to take his golf further and a win on Saturday should give him the confidence moving forward.
Von Stanke saw off Jim Ferrazzola in a count-back after the veteran also finished on +2.
Ferrazzola also showed glimpses of some fine golf with a number of pars but the difference in handicaps was always going to count against him, settling for second with splits of +1.
Another veteran, Russell Armstrong, put aside his dodgy knees by claiming third with his round of +1.
Pars on the 12th and 13th holes saw Armstrong close strongly with a +2 but the damage had been done earlier.
Scores of square or better were needed for a ball prize with Bruce Tichbon, Easterbrook, O’Donnell all on +1 and Stephen Smith, Steve Jelly, Colin Ferguson, Michael Millhouse, Michael Dawe, Garry Fox and Shaun Phillips on square.
John Millhouse and Ben Papps took home the pro shots while A Grade nearest to pin went to Easterbrook and Dwyer claimed the B Grade honours.
While the majority of players struggled with Saturday’s Par competition, they made up for it on Tuesday with the club hosting the same format.
The forecast stormy weather saw most of the field out early taking advantage of the pleasant weather and the conditions were reflected in the good scoring.
Colin Rex was one of the players who took their revenge on the course, turning his -4 on Saturday to a +4 and a win.
Rex’s front nine showed little improvement with three wipes but he managed to cover it with four plusses.
He parred the ninth hole which gave him some impetus for the inward nine.
However, his confidence took a hit with a wipe on the 10th hole but he fought back to close out his round with four plusses over the last five holes.
Graham Johnson was on fire to begin his round with three successive plusses and despite a couple of wipes along the way he built a solid foundation of +2 at the turn.
A brace of consecutive wipes dented his chances of a win only able to add one more plus to his score.
Club president Peter Sealey rounded out the placings with a score of +2.
