The women’s club championships got underway this week with the first two rounds played on Tuesday. The draw is seeded and in the Silver division the top seed is Sereana Phillipps, Jenni Johnston is the Bronze A top seed while Marilyn Beetham fills this position in Bronze B. With the top seeds having a bye in the first round the only result which could be considered an ‘upset’ was Jeanette McNae’s 3/2 win over previous Silver champion, Jan Williams.
On Saturday the men’s Sellar Trophy, the club’s stroke play championship, was held in five divisions with the senior and intermediate sections being over 36 holes and the junior A and B and masters, over 18 holes. Results were-
Senior
1st Sam Forrester 141 gross
2nd Brent McKenzie 158
3rd Simon Dew 158
Intermediate
1st Jim Kettle 156
2nd Gavin Harris 157
3rd David Cook 164
Junior A
1st Innes Kennard 85
2nd Gary Stewart 87
3rd Allan Carroll 87
Masters
1st Bob Hill 78
2nd Kevin Mackay 82
3rd Robin Carseldine 85
Junior B
1st Dominic Stewart
The club matchplay championship draw will be posted on the website and noticeboard, by Wednesday.
Masterton had three representatives in the Wellington senior representative team that played the quadrangular tournament against Hawke’s Bay, Taranaki and Manawatu/Wanganui at the weekend. Kerry Mountcastle, playing at No 2 won two matches and halved one, Dean Gray, playing at No 9 had one win and two losses and Sam Maree Brown, at No 4 for the senior women’s team, had two wins and a loss.
The vets got a beautiful day which attracted the biggest field for some time on Monday. Results of the stableford round were-
Women
1st Beryl Stewart 24
2nd Julia Moore 20
3rd Sue Blathwayt 19
Men Group 1
1st Brian Pollock 28
2nd Alan Kirkham 27
3rd George Grantham 26
Men Group 2
1st John Waddington 26
2nd Mike Inwood 24
3rd Rex Fowler 24
The Fagan Ford Nearest the Pin was Blyth King.
The Wednesday 9 Holers played a nett round which was won by Ruth Wiley from Jill Slight. The PGG Wrightson Longest Drive went to Geri Southey.
Ian Harrowfield won the New World Thursday competition with 42 stableford points. Second were both Ash Peterson and Bob Hill with 40.The All Teed Up Nearest the Pin was Ewen Macdonald.
This Saturday the men will play for the Jameson Cup, a Four Ball Best Ball Par competition and the women have a nett round.
Coming up on the club calendar are a number of major tournaments- on Labour Day 26 October we have the WBS stableford tournament with a shotgun start at 12 noon, on Saturday 31 October is the revamped Sir Bob Charles Classic, now an 18 hole tournament for left and right handers and on Melbourne Cup Day, 3 November the ladies (no men this year) have the very popular Trust House Tournament with an 11.30 tee off
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Off the Fairway
After my ‘question’ about golf rulings last week another rule has raised ‘it’s ugly head’, that of embedded balls. A couple of weeks ago a player, who shall remain nameless, when playing his second shot, hit the ball ‘on its head’ and drove it into the ground. He then claimed an embedded ball and duly lifted and dropped his ball and proceeded to play on. When he got to the green he explained what had happened and a rules debate took place- he felt he could drop without penalty as his ball was ‘embedded’ or ‘suckered’ and the others in the four were unsure. As it turned out this exact situation is covered in the ‘Decisions on the Rules of Golf’ and he should have declared his ball unplayable and taken a penalty stroke because relief is only provided if a ball is embedded in its own pitch mark- the word ‘pitch mark’ implies that the ball has become airborne and his second shot most certainly hadn’t! (Rule 28 and 25.2)