IT was an interesting week at the Mount Gambier Golf Club to start 2024.
Perfect weather on Thursday was followed by not-so-perfect conditions on Saturday afternoon, but it did not concern one golfer.
In a rare occurrence, Nick Wilke won both the Thursday competition and Saturday’s C Grade event, while also posting the best score of the day on Saturday to win the January monthly medal.
Thursday’s field of 118 enjoyed another day of fine weather with the lack of wind conducive to good scoring.
That was the case for Wilke who used his 33 handicap to perfection with 22/22 splits which comprised of nine three-pointers but included only one par on the 18th hole.
Wilke recently returned to competition golf following an ankle injury which kept him sidelined from football at South Gambier and the purchase of a new set of irons has been the big improver in his game.
While Wilke was a clear winner on Thursday there were many other good scores with John Miles (18 handicap) runner-up for the second week with 40 points.
His round consisted of a 20/20 split with seven three-pointers and a four-point birdie on the difficult 12th hole.
Having lost a shot from last week another handicap reduction is on the way for Miles.
President Trevor Roberts played well for 39 points, as did Matt Bryant.
On 38 points was Peter Emetlis, Nathan Taylor, Trevor Younghusband and Mark Teakle.
The ball run down went to 35 points again with valued volunteer Rob McIntyre taking the last one.
The nearest-the-pins were taken out by Josh MacLean on the eighth and Kevin Cook on the 16th but birdies were hard to come by.
Saturday morning golfers had the better of the conditions for the field of 104 before the late afternoon rain arrived.
Saturday was the monthly medal stroke round and as mentioned Nick Wilke (28), being five shots less than Thursday, had a round-of-the-day 65 to take out C Grade and the monthly medal.
Wilke had nett splits of 33/32 and improved on Thursday with five pars.
Wilke has lost another four shots off his handicap which makes a total of 15 dropped since May 2023.
Josh MacLean (20) was the unlucky runner-up with nett 66 which would normally be a winning score.
The long-hitting MacLean has posted some good scores of recent times and playing the back nine first had nett 33.
A birdie on the first (his 10th hole) followed, then he picked up further shots with pars on the second and sixth before the golfing gods brought him undone on the difficult seventh hole.
They were followed by Brad McDonnell and Ian Ewart on nett 68, while Andrew Birks and Doug Reid had 69.
On 71 was Scott Kenny and Cameron Buchanan (31), with the latter also dropping his handicap considerably after being on a 40 handicap back in November 2023.
B Grade was won by Peter Berkefeld (15) with nett 67.
A welcome return to form for Berkefeld who back in the day was quite a sportsman on the athletics track and cricket pitch with West Gambier.
After a mixed-bag front nine, Berkefeld rolled back the clock with a nett 31 on the back nine, shooting a pleasing 38 off-the-stick.
Moryn Sullivan (11) also played well for nett 68 and similar to Berkefeld had a strong back nine nett 32 with a birdie, par, par, par finish.
It was enough to count out Daryl Hutchins also with nett 68, while Peter Lock and Tony Revill followed on nett 70 and Bryce Whicker and Daniel Arch both had 71.
Good scoring on the back nine continued in the A Grade competition with Zac Shanks (7) the winner on nett 68.
His score came courtesy of a back nine nett 30, where he shot 35 off-the-stick made up of birdies on 12 and 18 and one bogey on 13.
Matt Knowles (7) also with nett 68 would have fancied his chances of winning with a back nine nett 31, even par 36 with birdies on 15 and the difficult 17th and bogeys on 12 and 16.
It was a similar story for Rob McIntyre, who finished on nett 68 with a nett 32 on the back nine.
Also with nett 68 was Michael Cutting (6).
Following on nett 70 was David Pick and Peter Waters, while on 71 was Jason Shanks and Jon Clayton.
The ball run down went to nett 75 with nearest-the-pins going to club champion Darren Bilney on the eighth and Mike Griffiths on the 16th.
Both players made their birdie putts.
