THE weather closed in for the first qualifying round of the Mount Gambier Golf Club’s women’s Club Championships last week, with just 34 players braving the wind and rain.
The main event of the day was a stroke round, with the D Grade women playing a stableford.
Playing off 29, Trudy Johnson was the only player to beat her handicap.
Her final tally of 98-29-69 was four shots better than her handicap and handed her the victory.
She managed a consistent round, with 48 strokes on the front nine, followed by 50 on the back.
That included pars on the third, eighth and 16th holes.
Lizzie Clements claimed second place with a score of 103-28-75 from another consistent round, with 52 strokes on the front nine and 51 on the back.
Women’s captain Jan Shanahan had a strong front nine to record 43 off the stick, then followed up with 48 off the stick on the back for the best score of the day.
A birdie on the par 3 eighth hole earned Shanahan to pro shot and three balls for her efforts.
The ball run-down ranged from Penne Saffin’s nett 77 down to Faye Mainwaring with nett 82.
Speciality prizes of a ball each for the second shot on the first hole went to A Grade’s Janina Morrison, B Grade’s Kate McCormick and C Grade’s Debbie Sheather.
The D Grade stableford event was won by Linda Boylan with 37 points.
After this week’s Event the qualifiers will go into a draw and compete in a match-play format next week.
Meanwhile, 17 women competed in a stableford competition on Saturday in cold but fine conditions.
Good scoring was hard to come by, with Marie Douglas the best with 33 points for top honours.
Douglas registered 15 points on the front nine and 18 on the back.
Carol Smith managed splits of 15/16 for second place, while Yvonne Shirley finished third on a count-back after also registering 31 points, with 16 on the front and 15 on the back.
