WHILE the fair-weather golfers wait patiently for the days to get longer, the hardier players who braved the dreary winter’s day for a par round at the Blue Lake Golf Club were greeted with some better-than-average scores.
Leading that group was overall winner Gavin Coon with a superb score of +5.
Like most, Coon has seen his handicap slip out over winter to the point he found himself back in B Grade, which was the wake up boost he needed.
That was also the way his round panned out, an up-and-down front nine with some great pars for plusses were given back too easy, to the point he found himself square after nine.
Knowing he only needed to make some small twitches to his game, he opened the back nine with a brace of pars for two plusses before a wipe on the relatively easy 12th hole.
But that was the only blemish, with rectification coming on the next hole with a par before a birdie on the long par 3 14th hole.
Another two pars on the way in saw him close out the back nine with a brilliant +5 which was also his overall score.
There was a count-back needed to decide the A Grade winner, with both Derek Sargeant and Nick Childs finishing +2.
Childs did all his good work early, with birdies on the third and fifth holes and would have been eyeing off a possible win with +3 at the turn.
While he cooled off over the back nine, he still had the grade win in his pocket with a steady +1 over five holes on the back nine.
However, scrubs on the 15th and 16th holes hurt and while he clawed one back on the 17th, he gave it straight back with a double-bogey on the last.
Sergeant had a similar game going.
At +2 after nine with a great 38 off the stick he fell out of step slightly with a pair of plusses negating a pair of wipes to finish his outward nine at +2.
His score of square was still good enough to take out second and was a good return on the day.
Gearing up for representative golf, talented young gun Callum Harvey claimed third place with his score of +1.
Underlying what talent he possesses, Harvey reeled off pars and birdies at will, but he will need to rid his game of some erratic golf, his front nine having just the one halved hole and only four on the day.
Comprising a round of seven plusses, it was a case of what could have been for Harvey and the club wishes him well representing the South East.
In a tight count-back Bruce Morale just got pipped by Harvey for the third place after it came down to individual hole scores, both finishing +1 on the back and same scores on the last six holes.
Wayne Dunford fount the spark he needed to get his round going by chipping in from 50 metres out for a birdie on the eighth hole.
Another five plusses followed after that, his only disappointment coming on the 17th hole, with the flag down the bottom of the green he would have at least expected a squared hole.
It was still a great closing +3 over the back to capture the B Grade win.
There was a three-way count-back to decide the minor placings.
Michael Johnston put himself in the best possible seat for victory with a birdie on the last hole for splits of -2 and +1, which was exactly the same split as veteran Colin Tester.
With both even after the last six holes, the count-back came down to individual hole scores, with Johnston just edging out the unlucky Tester.
Justin Ploenges was out of the count-back early with a score of square over the back nine, but still a handy round of -1.
C Grade winner Sam Bradbrook probably felt like the Swans and Cats players after their AFL draw.
With a score of square he did not know whether to feel happy or sad, but cheered up with the news he took out the grade win.
Second-placed Russell Lingham gave Bradbrook an almighty scare with his blistering finish.
Turning with an out-of-contention -4, nothing much was going right for Lingham after 13 holes, walking off the 13th with a triple-bogey and cursing the game.
But he then needed just 21 more strokes to end his round with three pars and two bogeys for an amazing finish.
Collin Rex also showed glimpses of brilliance with pars on the 14th and 15th holes for a -2 total which was good enough to take third place.
Ball winners on the day included the unlucky Morale, Michael Watts, Brett Perryman, Ploenges, Rod Heinrich, Scott Manning, Smokey Von Duve, Matt Jennings, Jamal Jakubenko and Josh Gale.
Nick Wilson made short work of the 17th hole, needing only three strokes to clean out the eagles nest, while Stephen Smith (fifth hole) and Watts (16th) won the pro shots.
Von Duve also won the B Grade nearest the pin, while Jake Matthews took out the A Grade equivalent.
