THE GEM Easter Tournament at the Blue Lake Golf Club is an event several local golfers mark in their calendars each year and this year, despite the weather, was no exemption with close to a capacity field of 120 golfers vying for the honour.
As well as the usual good complement of members there was also representation from Naracoorte, Port Fairy, Portland, Heywood, Millicent and the Mount Gambier Golf Club.
The competition was played over Easter Saturday and Sunday and players vied for the bestt nett aggregate and best gross aggregate honours.
Anthony Riddoch took home the best nett aggregate award as he continued his rich vein of form with a total of 135 across the two days.
There was more joy for the Blue Lake Golf Club as another member, Tyson Ploenges, took home the trophy for best gross aggregate score with 147.
Dan Christian and Trevor Little were the two runners-up with Christian scoring 138 in the the nett competition and Little runner-up in the gross competition with a score of 149.
The Blue Lake Golf Club’s Jamie Myers took out the Saturday round victory with his impressive 87 off the stick to give him a net score of 61.
Myers impressed on the inward nine with four pars and closed his round with a 43 on the back nine.
Riddoch was solid all day and five straight pars followed by a birdie on the sixth hole put him in good stead for the rest of the round.
His only blemish came on the seventh hole where an errant drive caught him undone and picked up his only bogey on the front nine.
It was a similar story on the inward nine with a single birdie and bogey on the for equal splits of 35.
Riddoch backed it up the next day and dropped a stroke off his handicap in another fine display.
He started strongly once again with a par and a birdie off his first two holes before slight stumbles on the fourth, sixth and eighth holes meant he turned with 36.
Fatigue started to set in after playing 27 holes and the birdies dried up on the back nine but his 38 and nett 70 saw him elated with his two rounds of golf.
Christian put in a solid performance over the weekend with two very impressive rounds.
It was a consistent performance on Saturday with equal splits of 35 with a birdie and bogey on each nine to record an even par 70.
He then backed it up on Sunday with a one over par 36 on the outward nine followed by a 32 on the inward nine which included birdies on the opening three holes of the back nine.
Ploenges did well to resurrect his round after a disastrous start saw him take a penalty and walk off with a triple-bogey seven but that was the only time he was flustered in an otherwise impressive round.
A birdie on the eighth hole kicked him into gear and he closed out his round with the promise of better things to come on the Sunday.
With his putter starting to run hot Ploenges had equal splits of 35, matching three bogeys on the front with birdies and only the one blemish on the back nine.
Little started strongly with his opening 71 off the stick to sit on top of the leaderbaord and recorded only three bogeys for the day.
However, it was a challenge to back up his strong performance form the first day and his bogeys turned into double bogeys with red inl on the ninth, 16th and 18th holes.
However, birdies on the 13th and 15th holes reduced the damage.
In the minor grades, Jake Turner took out the B Grade win with his aggregate nett total of 138, including a superb nett 64 on the Sunday and Wayne Dunford claimed second with 144.
In C Grade, Richard Neale needed all his craftiness to overcome the tricky conditions to take the win with 146 from Brenton Speck on 152.
