WHILE the normal weekly Blue Lake Golf Club wrap-up focuses on the winner, this week was remarkable for a number of individual highlights.
Shaun Phillips took the win with his superb round of 75-10-65 – and we will come to him later – but he was just one of several A Grade players who brought their best game out in Saturday’s stroke competition.
Of the 100-odd players, a quarter of them played to their handicap or better and of those, half were A Grade players.
Anthony Williams, in his laconic style, shot the lights out.
Playing off a 0.53 handicap which converted to one, Williams had a three-under the card front nine of 32 with birdies on the sixth, seventh and ninth holes.
He was seen in deep discussion with himself after bogeying the eighth.
The back nine dropped away a bit but he still managed another two birdies on the 12th and 15th for an inward even par 35.
His nett 66 will have him return to his scratch handicap.
Matt Bowering (9 handicap) had the distinction of beating Williams, albeit in a countback.
Bowering also had patches of brilliance with four birdies, including the 11th, 12th and 18th for a three-under 36 on the back nine.
Colin Stratford had a round of two halves.
After starting with three successive double bogeys, he turned it around to have a 38 off-the-stick on the back nine for splits of 47 and 38 for a nett 67.
Greg Cooper was another who enjoyed the second half of his round, going out with a solid 40 but then coming home strong with birdies on the 15th and 17th to post a 37 for that nine.
Club president Stephen Easterbrook was chatty back in the clubhouse after his splits of 36 and 39.
Just the solitary bogey on the eighth hole blotted his outward nine.
The Blue Lake layout often receives comments on the difference between the two nines and Bruce Morale’s round highlighted that.
With birdies on the third, fifth and sixth holes, Morale faced the “easier” back nine after just 33 strokes.
Opening the back nine with three pars through the first four holes Morale felt good leading into the last five holes.
However, things went awry from there with double bogeys on the 14th, 15th and 17th holes leaving the placid right hander slightly hot under the collar.
Take nothing away from the overall winner Phillips.
Starting superbly with a birdie, Phillips only had three bogeys on each nine, displaying his talent by crafting some exquisite shot making and getting out of the rare trouble he found himself in.
Phillips’ good form will see his handicap drop down into single figures which is well deserved.
In A Grade it was Bowering who took the win, his handicap advantage helping him in the countback against Williams.
James Roughana also survived a countback for third place from Cooper and Easterbrook.
In B Grade Tony Brooks continued his recent good form with his win, recording a round of 80-14-66.
With a birdie on the 14th his score could have been even better except for double bogeys on the 11th and 15th.
Stratford settled for second, just seeing off Matthew Noonan who had the same score of 67.
Noonan had a mixed round with some solid holes but blighted his card with four doubles.
A triple countback was required to determine the C Grade winner, as Bruce Tichbon, Colin Rex and Michael Millhouse all returned a nett 68.
Tichbon was awarded first place after his excellent 44 on the back nine – three under his handicap of 26.
Rex matched this with his handicap of 27 which meant the countback went down to the wire.
Millhouse fell back into third, unable to match those hot scores, with an even handicap 45 on the back nine.
The ball rundown went down to scores of 70 or better which included Cooper and Easterbrook, as well as Roger Gale, Simon Perryman, Garret Ha, Doug McPherson, Morale, Pat Taylor, Geoff Munt, Sam Bradbrook, Robert Martland and Dalton.
Wayne Dunford had a relatively ordinary score despite pulling out two good tee shots which won him the B Grade nearest-the-pin and the pro shot on the fifth.
Unluckily for John Robertson, in the group right behind Dunford, his shot on the fifth fell agonisingly 2cm short of Dunford’s.
Easterbrook picked up the other pro shot on the 16th while Brad Talbot and Peter Mikelsen won their respective nearest-the-pins.
