WHILE Bill Burley and Craig Davis were running clinics for junior golfers at the Blue Lake Golf Club, Marc Dalton was putting on his own clinic on Tuesday.
Playing in the mid-week stroke competition Dalton was hot all day, bouncing back well from an opening bogey with a birdie on the third hole.
Another bogey on the sixth hole saw him turn with 36, even with his handicap of two.
But he immediately put on his own masterclass, opening birdie, par, birdie on the back nine.
A couple of bogeys on the way in were countered for with another birdie on the 17th hole to finish with a one-under 34 and nett 68 for the win.
Ori Festa often plays in a hi-vis top and it was just as well, because he was storming home, a birdie on the 14th hole seeing him just fall shy of catching Dalton.
The damage was done early for Festa with an outward 53, but he finished well with an inward 48 for a 69 nett and second place.
Festa had to see off Will Von Stanke and Gavin Coon in a three-way count-back for the silverware.
With handicaps taken into account Festa was -3 over the back nine with his 48 off the stick, with Von Stanke’s 41 earning him just the one-under, settling for third.
Probably the unluckiest of the three was Coon who had an outright win in his grasp.
Opening with a birdie, Coon was two under his handicap with a 39 after nine holes and a par on the 10th followed by a birdie on the 13th saw him well on track for the honours.
With the innocuous dogleg 15th hole to play, Coon knew regulation golf would have him on the top step of the podium.
However, that hole has brought plenty of golfers undone over the years who take on the trees, but then quickly find themselves in trouble.
A costly triple-bogey brought him undone and saw him drop out of the placings all together.
Tyson Ploenges is slowly finding the form that took him to a better-than-scratch golfer and that was on show with a solid 71.
A double-bogey on the second hole was his undoing, but he came home well with splits of 37 and 36.
David Lovie also returned a 71, unlucky to find trouble on the 17th hole which wiped out his chances.
Not sure how Brenton Speck would have felt after the 18th hole.
Having one of those rounds from hell, he improved by a massive 22 strokes over the back nine, even finishing with a par on the 18th.
Golf certainly is a strange game.
