THERE was plenty of reason for Michael Olle to be happy on Saturday, as he claimed victory at the Blue Lake Golf Club in the par competition and also celebrated his first wedding anniversary.
Olle scored plusses with his bogeys on the third and fourth holes and then added to that with a birdie on the sixth hole to turn with +5.
He made up for a wipe on the 11th hole with a plus on the 12th and then finished square on the back nine.
However, it was still enough for him to see off his competitors and take home the victory.
Veteran John Millhouse put in a solid performance to take out the A Grade win with a score of +4.
After a rocky start, he recovered immediately with a birdie on the second hole and then parred the third to kickstart his round.
Turning with +2 a solid back nine had him adding another two plusses to his score.
Millhouse showed his mental strength in bouncing back from a succession of bogeys to have a run of three pars and a birdie on the 17th hole to take the well earned win.
Shannon Fullerton did all his good work early with an outward 36 off the stick earning him a +3 at the change over.
He quickly built on that with a par on the 10th hole and was eying off the A Grade win.
However, he gave two of those plusses back with wipes on the 14th and 16th hole before he finished with a brace of pars on the last two holes for a +3 total and finished runner-up.
Greg Cooper is another who hasn’t quite realised his full potential.
Cooper picked up three birdies on the weekend to show he has the game but errant golf saw him unable to deliver on occasion and made the turn at -2.
He took consolation from his back nine where he scored two birdies on the 12th and 15th hole for a +4 return and claimed third place.
In B Grade it was the ultra-consistent Wayne Dunford who took the win with +1.
Dunford – who established himself in A Grade for a long time – would love to keep his recent form up to return to those heights.
David Adkins was happy to take second place despite the fact he couldn’t get his putter hot as several putts either lipped out or missed by the barest of margins.
Adkins’ plus three total over the back nine helped him secure second place in a count back against Michael Millhouse, who also finished square.
Millhouse impressed in his last five holes where he earned three plusses.
Another player to have a good back nine was C Grade winner Richard Neale.
He also battled hard over the front nine to turn with +1 and things were going along smoothly over the back nine until the 15th hole where he suddenly found his mojo and upped his game.
Neale picked up three successive pars to storm home and take the C Grade victory.
Veteran Kevin Mansell was unfortunate that he came up against Neale in red hot form as his +3 score would normally be good enough for the win.
Mansell had his own run of impressive golf with pars on the 13th and 14th holes for splits of +1 and +2 to take second.
It was a case of all or nothing for Matt Dwyer, finishing the front nine with three successive pars to turn with +3 and a win in sight.
He actually went one better on the back nine parring the 12th to 15th holes but had five wipes to go with them.
Tyson Ploenges put in a consistent performance and was one of the ball winners, while Marc Dalton had five birdies on his was to featuring in the ball rundown, alongside Scott Manning, Steve Jelly, Colin Ferguson, Russell Armstrong, James Roughana, Peter Mikelsen, Anthony Riddoch and Bruce Morale.
With the flag set on the lower portion of the 17th hole, it was no surprise to see four players eagle the hole including Derek Sargeant, Ferguson, Matt Roscow and Ben Papps.
