A quick turn around saw our Watt Cup team back in action again one week after hosting the first round of the season. With Oliver Vincent now at University and Patrick Wellbrock unavailable for this match, the opportunity to introduce George Fenwick and Tama Ratima to the team was taken as we traveled to BFHGC to take on Paraparaumu. Great commitment was displayed by Tama’s family earlier in the week, arranging for his clubs to be flown into town from the flood-ravaged Castle Point area. Much appreciated, thank you.
Some early nerves were evident from our debutants which was to be expected, especially given neither of them had ever visited BFHGC before. George settled quickly after a first hole loss but it was a while before Tama could put a halt on his early hole losses. George was all square through five holes but Tama was four down and we were down by the same margin in the four ball.
George grew with confidence and went about building a lead, getting to one up at the turn and reducing Pararaumu’s lead in the four ball to just one. Tama was now five down though and could not recover from here, falling to a 7/6 defeat. A great effort nonetheless and his hole out from the bunker on the 8th was a real highlight!
George continued to apply the pressure to his opponent, getting his lead to four up at one point, before finishing his match with an impressive 3/1 victory. Brilliant result, well played! Unfortunately the four ball didn’t go our way with a 4/3 loss registered.
Jamie Frew fell victim to the fast greens in the wind early on, allowing his opponent to build a four up lead through the first six holes but he dragged his way back to be all square through 11 holes. Luke Lange returned to the venue of his recent Otaki Cup success and was all square through five holes before he put the foot down and started to build a healthy lead, getting to four up through 10 holes. He showed no sign of letting his opponent back in, finishing his singles match with a 6/5 win on the 13th green. Jamie had a good stretch of holes to get to one up in his match at the same point and the pair had got the four ball to a three up lead. Things were looking promising but the tide turned again.
Jamie’s short game woes returned through holes 15 to 17 resulting in a 2/1 loss and with Luke finding the road rather than the fairway off the tee on holes 14 and 15, the four ball lead was back to just one as they headed to the 17th tee. Luke made a clutch putt to maintain that margin on the 17th but both he and Jamie made bogey on the last to allow their opponents to sneak a half.
A 3.5 – 2.5 loss was the final result, leaving us in third place as we head to Paraparaumu in two weeks time to take on Judgeford.
Nathan Frew, Manager