THE Blue Lake Golf Club once again hosted the annual Wayne Scutter Invitational, an event which recognises and honours the input Wayne Scutter had in building the club to where it is today as one of the jewels in the South East golfing crown.
The invitational is highly regarded and attracts a large field from throughout the region.
This year, there were more than 110 starters vied for the honour of being outright or handicap champion.
After 18 holes, it fittingly came down to arguably the best two golfers the club has – Anthony Williams and head greenskeeper Daniel Christian.
The pair failed to disappoint and both posted scores of 73.
Williams had two bogeys on the second and seventh holes for a two-over 37, while Christian went one better with a pair of bogeys but a birdie on the fifth hole.
Williams picked up two birdies of his own on the way in for a 36 while Christian’s two bogeys bumped him back to a 37 and into a tie.
Under the rules, both players then went to the first to begin their play-off holes, where Williams prevailed and was crowned champion.
In the handicap division, it was Garrett Ha who put his name on the honour board with his round of 89-23-66.
Ha kept out of trouble with his worst holes being ninth and 18th but otherwise found regular pars and even a birdie on the 15th hole.
With the course set to its maximum it was a great round of golf from the up-and-coming Ha and he also took out the C Grade win.
In A Grade, Greg Cooper posted a nett 68 after a solid round.
He was unable to make some of his birdie putts but Cooper kept the red ink off his scorecard and posted nine pars through his round for a much-deserved win.
It was a distant three strokes back to second place which was claimed by Gavin Coon with a 71.
Coon found himself in trouble early with a disastrous third hole but rebounded well with a run of pars through the middle part of his outward nine.
He opened the back nine with a par but it was soon followed by a double-bogey.
However, a superb birdie on the 13th hole put his round back on track.
There was a four-way-tie for third as Williams, Christian, Michael Cutting and Adam Dunn all finished on nett 72.
After the count-back, the prize was awarded to Williams with his 36 off the stick too good for the others.
Michael Millhouse’s golf goes from strength to strength and this was evident on Saturday with his win in B Grade with a score of 89-20-69.
Millhouse was another who found the third hole difficult but it was otherwise easy going as he reeled off pars at will.
Adrian Wallace found himself in unfamiliar territory in B Grade and was keen to return to A grade with his closing 40.
Veteran Colin Stratford made up for his shock exit in the club championships by taking out the remaining prize with his round of 90-18-72.
Despite a birdie on the last hole, the damage had been done on the 17th for Fred Knight who missed out on third after a count-back.
Ha and John Robertson dominated C Grade.
Ha’s 66 was exemplary but Robertson’s 70 was also worthy of compliments.
A distant five shots further back was Dieter Rostig with his round 107-32-75 and just edged out Mario Mancuso in a count-back.
The ball winners included Fred Knight, Christian, Michael Cutting, Adam Dunn, Ben Wilson, Joe Clements, Stacy Fiegert, Smokey Von Duve, Stacey Parsons, John Brown, David Dowie and Marc Dalton.
After finishing tied in the previous day’s Scutter Invitational, it was expected to be a close tussle in the A Grade Club Championship final between Christian and Williams.
Both players started the final strongly as they both picked up a birdie on the first hole.
Williams brought the heat and there were more birdies to follow after the first.
An amazing 32 off the stick had Williams four up after nine holes which he extended to eight up after the first 18.
Despite playing some terrific golf, Christian went down 11/10 which was more of an indication of how well Williams played.
It was a lot tighter in B Grade with the evenly matched Shaun Phillips up against Von Duve.
After an even five holes where the lead see-sawed, Phillips held the early advantage after nine holes.
He extended his lead to 5 up at the lunch break.
After the break, Von Duve clawed back two holes to set up a tight finish.
It went down to the 16th hole and with Phillips ahead by four holes. Von Duve had run out of time.
Russell Lingham put a disastrous start behind him and called upon all of his experience when he battled with Brenton Hodge in C Grade.
After nine holes, it was Lingham who found himself one up and managed to keep the lead through to the lunch break.
With the final contested over 27 holes, Hodge had to fight his way back into the contest and almost managed to do so but fell just short.
Lingham added another trophy to a distinguished career as he took out the championship.
