BOBBY White found the ideal recipe to to return to the clubhouse with +7 and take out the win in Saturday’s par competition at the Blue Lake Golf Club.
White would be the first to admit he does not possess a text-book swing, but what he has he puts to good use and anytime you are playing off eight, something is working for you.
He had the perfect start with not a minus in sight on the front nine, even throwing in a birdie on the sometimes difficult par 5 third hole.
It was a personal best 34 and +5 after nine, but he had too much time to dream about that in the walk up the ramp to begin his inward journey.
He started off with a bogey, but that only cost him a squared hole and he immediately rectified that with another birdie on the 11th.
Facing the reachable 12th hole, and with the encouragement of his playing partners, he decided to have a go at reaching the green with his drive.
Unfortunately, it was a disaster with a wipe, his only minus for the day.
There were pars to follow from there, except for the last with a squared bogey.
It was an impressive round for White and except for the solitary wipe, it could have been a sub-par round.
However, he was still happy to take the win with +7.
There was a fair gap back to the other A Grade players, with Zach Westwick and Tim Smith fighting it out for the win, both finishing with +2.
In the end it was Westwick who prevailed in the count-back with his +1 on each nine.
Westwick is in a rich vein of form and he showed why with just the five bogeys for the day and two birdies – on the third and 17th holes.
Unfortunately for him two of those bogeys came on holes he does not get a shot on, costing him a wipe on each side.
However it was still another strong showing and he is another player working their way to a scratch handicap.
Smith did all his good work on the outward nine with an opening birdie and followed that up with another on the seventh hole for an outward even card 35 and +4.
Unfortunately, from there he had four wipes and just the two plusses to finish +2 and into a frustrating count-back, which he eventually lost to Westwick.
Ben Papps (12 handicap) also had his trials and tribulations with a mixture of precision golf and some ugly wipes.
There were just the two squared holes on his front nine for a +1 and he could not add to that on the back nine, with two plusses and two minuses.
In B Grade Gary Telford is also enjoying a run of good form with his +5 being the top score.
Playing off a generous handicap of 20, Telford made the most of it with four plusses to start his round, which consisted of two pars and two bogeys to make the turn with +3.
Another strong start to his back nine saw him add three pars and three plusses to his score before wipes on the 14th and 18th holes, which took a bit of gloss off what was a great round of golf.
He was a very happy winner with +5.
At the other end of the grade Matt Jennings (13) is doing his best to claw his way back into A Grade and he could find himself there after his +4.
He threw everything he could at Telford to try and catch him, finishing with four plusses over his last five holes, but it just was not quite enough.
He was still happy with his round of +1 and +3 and the elevation back into the premier grade.
Most of the A Grade players have probably not heard of Daniel Loupos, but they better take notice as he will soon be joining their ranks after another strong performance on Saturday.
Opening with four successive pars, he was finding the game easy and he proved how easy with a par, birdie finish to the front nine.
However, he also managed a couple of wipes in the middle to make the turn at +3.
The back nine was just as up-and-down as the front nine, with four wipes to go along with his four plusses, but there was enough good golf on display to show once he gets some consistency into his game he will be a threat to come.
Ray Patching played a round for the ages, with his +6 normally good enough for the outright win, but unfortunately he came up against the red-hot White.
Patching was solid early with his experience coming to the fore, scrambling a square on the difficult par 4 fourth hole to find himself +4 after seven holes.
His only wipe for the day came on the eighth hole, but he still turned with a healthy +3, which is the same score he added on the back nine thanks to some clutch putts.
He was a clear winner in C Grade, five in front of his nearest rival.
Dieter Rostig must have enjoyed roller coasters when he was younger because that is what his golf game resembled.
There was a mixture of good and bad, the good being four plusses and the bad being wipes on two holes.
The back nine was much of the same, but just the two plusses to go along with four squared holes and three minuses.
His score of +1 was still good enough to take the second place prize money.
Matt Dwyer survived a four-way count-back to snare the last prize on offer, his 0 being good enough to see off Kevin Mansell, Brayden Lane and Richard Neale.
There were some hard luck stories in the players to miss out.
Mansell wiped three of the last four holes to put him back in the pack, Lane turned a +3 start into a squared finish, while Neale did the same.
Scores of square or better were needed for a ball prize and that featured Fred Knight, Ben McCourt, Jesse Foster +2, Bryan Scott +1, Elliott King, Josh Gale, Fred Gould, Mansell, Roger Gale, James Roughana, Garret Ha and Lane all square.
Pro Shots were taken out by Nick Wilson on the fifth hole and Gavin Coon on the 16th, while Telford and Matt Roscow won their respective nearest the points.
