LAST week’s winner Richard Kuhn obviously enjoyed the feeling so much he decided to back it up again this week to take out the Bay Pizzaria sponsored stableford event at the Blue Lake Golf Club.
It had been a long time between drinks for the likeable veteran, but he made up for it with consecutive victories with a solid round of 39 points.
Opening with three pars, he gave a point back on the fourth and sixth hole to make the turn with 19.
The only hole to give him any grief on the back nine was the innocuous 12th where he went chasing turkeys in the trees and scored his only nil points for the day.
But four closing pars saw him take the win with a 79 off the stick for 39 points.
It will see Kuhn solidify his place in A Grade where he has spent most of his playing career.
Brett Perryman chased hard to try and catch Kuhn with a closing 21 points, but had to settle for the A Grade win.
A solid, if unspectacular front nine, saw him with an outward 17 points, but he then set about lighting up the course.
Opening the back nine with three pars and a birdie on the 12th hole, the two par 3’s that followed only earned him a point each that proved the difference.
It was still an awesome equal par 35 strokes that saw him fall just short of the overall win, finishing with splits of 17 and 21.
That hot finish was enough to see him clinch the count-back against early-morning starter Bruce Morale, who set the benchmark quickly with 38 points.
A scrub on the ninth hole where a birdie is often on the cards eventually cost him not only the overall win, but also saw him fall into a tie with Perryman.
A closing 36 with a birdie also on the 12th hole added a bit of cream to his own good finish of 20 points.
Having reached the magical scratch handicap, Marc Dalton was obviously disappointed to see that “blow out” to one and set about rectifying that with 37 points and third place.
A disappointing scrub on the seventh hole and a bogey on the reachable 17th were his only real setbacks, but he made up for that with birdies on the third, 11th, 15th and 16th holes.
In B Grade the ever-consistent Wayne Dunford added another trophy to his collection with a win but he certainly had to struggle to get there.
After a tap-in birdie on the second hole gave him three points, he handed them straight back with consecutive double-bogeys on the next two holes before scrambling a par on the ninth for 17 points.
It was a similar story on the back nine, with a couple of double-bogeys interspersed with impressive pars, the best on the last hole for three points and 35 in total.
While the other grades needed better than par for a win, Dunford was happy to still take the victory.
Second-placed Gary Telford probably thought he was out of the winners list after a scratchy 16 points on the outward nine, but he did what was needed in stableford golf and that is to score on every hole, even if it is just a solitary point.
An improved 18 points on the back nine was enough to secure the placing in a count-back with club secretary Stephen Smith.
Smith could have snatched the win except for trouble on the 16th and last holes where a single point each cost him dearly.
It was a case of what could have been for C Grade winner Richard Dean.
An impressive par on the third hole saw him bank four points and he added another three for a similar score on the fifth to see him with 21 by the halfway mark.
It was a scramble to open the back nine, with a couple of one-point holes, but a par on the 15th had him on 32 points with three still to play and a possibility of at least six easy points to follow.
With the flag on the lower portion of the green on the 17th there were easy points on offer, but he scrubbed the hole completely which severely dented his chances.
A three-point bogey on the last hole at least gave him some consolation of the grade win.
Jake Turner left his run just a little too late, lighting up the scoreboard with pars on the last two holes for eight points.
His closing 21 saw him finish with a 36-point total.
Robbie Drenthen was another who made full use of his handicap, with two of his four pars earning him four points each.
While an outward 16 points was not anything special, his closing 19 shows that he is a champion in the making.
Jamie Walters and Greg Cooper led the list of place-getters with 36 points, followed by Zeick Dalton, Tim Smith, Scott Manning, Joe Pritchard, Steve Jelly, Kieran Ashby 34, Callum Harvey and Vic Smith on 33.
Gavin Coon and Josh Gale picked up the pro shots on the fifth and 16th holes respectively, while Morale (A Grade), Justin Ploenges (B) and Russell Lingham (C) won their respective NTP’s.
