Both men’s and women’s interclub has dominated the last golfing week with all the Wellington men’s teams in action, and the two of the three women’s pennants teams playing.
The most successful men’s team was the Div A4 team which had the advantage of playing ‘at home’ against Miramar. In their first competition match of the season the team won 9-6 with singles wins to Ash Peterson, Carl Christensen, Derek Clarkson, Mike Dixon, Bob Hill and Alan Kirkham. The Gibson Sheat Otaki Cup team travelled to Paraparaumu to play Shandon and suffered another heavy defeat, 12-3, with singles wins to Dean Gray and John Warner. In Div A1 Masterton played Karori at Karori and found the ‘environment’ too hard to cope with for a heavy 13½-1½ loss. The solitary singles win was recorded by Simon Buckley.
In the women’s Monday Pennants competition our Div 1 team played Shandon at Martinborough for a good 6½-2½ victory with wins to Carolyn Stevenson, Jo Philps and Linda Cameron and 2½ points from the maximum 3 in the fourballs. Div 2 Section 2 seems a little confused at the moment with our team having a bye which suggests a team has withdrawn at this early stage of the competition. Pennants Div 3 had the difficult task of playing Te Marua at Te Marua and came away with an outstanding 6-3 win with wins to Brenda Blatchford, Jenni Johnston, and Shirley Saunders but also got 2½ points from the fourballs.
The 9 holers have also played the next round of the Wellington 9 hole interclub and met Waikanae at Waikanae for an excellent 2½-1½ victory with wins to Barbie Wallace and Beet Horrocks.
Meanwhile the men’s and women’s Saturday club fields played a par round. Results were-
Men
1st Alec Ward +6
2nd Ray Morris +6
Women
1st Lesley Stewart +4
The All Teed Up Nearest the Pin’s were won by Bill Sangster and Nooroa Rota and the no 18 by Paul Williams.
Last Wednesday a good field of 9 holers played a PGG Wrightson Putting round which was won by Barbie Wallace and Rosey Wellbrock, both with 14 putts. The longest drive went to Geri Southey and the All Teed Up Nearest the Pin to Di Herbert.
The vets played a stableford round on Monday in beautiful conditions. Results were-
Women
1st Helen Falloon 30
2nd Venetta Justice 29
3rd Liz Waddington 28
Men Group 1
1st Murray Wolland 30
2nd Ash Peterson 29
3rd John Tatham 28
Men Group 2
1st Derek Bamford 32
2nd Roger Gardner 30
3rd Harvey Ward 30
The Fagan Ford Nearest the Pin was won by Roger Gardner.
Last Thursday, in the New World Supermarket stableford competition, Trevor Smith was the winner with 40 points from Ash Peterson and Murray Johnston, also with 40. The All Teed Up Closest to the Pin was Ash Peterson.
The more mature men at TRC Toyota Twilight Golf last Wednesday were humbled by three teenagers. Mitch Hooper compiled 26 points and headed off the two brothers, Cody and Nate Hefferen, who had 22 and 21 respectively. Mitch has now compiled 64 points in his last 3 9-hole outings. On the ladies side, experience shone through with Helen Ordish scoring 25 points, heading off Carol Morgan, Jeanette McNae and Jan Williams. Russell Stewart did not have a good night but did hit the longest drive in the men’s and Jocelyn Pollock won the ladies. John Dalziell was the All Teed Up Nearest the Pin and Ann Kenny won the Matahiwi Challenge bottle of wine. 49 golfers attended and 30 stayed for dinner to round out the night. Just 3 weeks of competitions remain with the trophy presentation night set for 16 March.
On a lovely warm Tuesday thirty-three women teed off for a par round. They obviously enjoyed the good conditions with plenty of run as there were some excellent scores. Results were-
Silver:
1st Jo Lucas +5
2nd Brenda Blatchford +4
3rd Jenni Johnston +2
Bronze:
1st Sue Dalziell +7
2nd Jane Buchanan +6
3rd Carol Morgan +6
The All Teed Up Nearest the Pin on No 8 and the New World Nearest the Pin on No 18 were both won by Nooroa Rota.
This Saturday Div A1 and A4 are playing ‘catch up’ interclub matches with A1 being at Masterton and the men’s club field will play a qualifier for the Moore Stephen Markham shootout. On Sunday our Marquis Shield team begins the defence our last year’s title, playing at Carterton and the women’s Tilson Salver team plays Carterton at Mahunga.
Off The Fairway
Over the last 3 months some major enhancements have been made to the course. Not only has the very keen group of firewood men continued their amazing work, but a small Wednesday group has almost finished trimming the bottom branches of many of the trees. Last week, with the generous help of the Friday Sunday Club, a stump grinder made short work of all the stumps on the course making the walk around Lansdowne even more enjoyable than it always has been!