IT was a battle of the big hitters in Tuesday’s midweek par competition at the Blue Lake Golf Club with Stephen Easterbrook (7 handicap) and Trevor McLean going right down to the wire to decide the winner.
Easterbrook bookended his front nine with scrubs but in between there was some good golf on display with birdies on the third and eighth holes to scramble a squared nine.
It was steady going to start the inward nine with a plus and a minus negating each other.
The same came on the 13th and 14th but from then he stormed home needing just 14 more strokes over the last four holes including an eagle on the 17th.
That proved a bridge a little too far for McLean but he did his best.
After a lacklustre front nine he made the turn still with a +1 to his name and after a par, birdie start to the back nine he found himself four up with five holes to play.
His birdie on the 15th was a good pick up on a hole he does not get a shot on but it was the next two holes which proved pivotal.
A scrub on the 16th which is a difficult par 3 is never a big surprise but to scrub the reachable 17th with the flag on the bottom level proved crucial.
In the end he split both halves with a +1 to fall just short of the win.
Early starter Bruce Grubb took out the remaining prize money with his well earned +1.
He would have felt like he was in charge of the golf course after his start of three plusses and even with a double on the 4fourh he made the turn at that score.
Unfortunately he could not build on this with just the one par earning him a plus to go along with three pick ups.
He was still happy with his overall score of +1.
Three players played equal to their handicap including Matt Roscow (5) who was off to a slow start but did all his good work over the last six holes with three plusses to finish square.
Gavin Coon could not quite reach the same level as Saturday despite birdies on the ninth and 17th holes for equal splits of 0.
Quentin Perryman was another to be off to a flyer with three pars to start his round.
With another on the fifth he made the turn +2.
A run of pick ups on the back nine were eased slightly with a par, par finish for an even handicap round.
A host of players were just off the mark, finishing -1, including Russell Lingham, John Kamp, John Millhouse and Adam Stephenson , Kamp’s highlight being a brace of birdies on the 12th and 13th holes.
Brad Talbot had four birdies on his way to a -2 round.
