Men’s Competition Update: Club Championships & Mid Week Captains
Club Championships – Match Play Finals
Open Grade & Intermediate – Both of these grades have 36-hole finals, so they were on the tee at day-break. Matthew Cormack held a narrow 1up lead over Nathan Smith in the Open Grade, while Kailesh Patel was up over Dean Palmer. Matty extended his lead to 2up at the lunch break, while Kailesh lost 4 holes late in the round for Dean to reach the half-way point with a narrow 1up lead.
Matty continued to extend his lead in the afternoon round and won comfortably 6/5, while Kailesh and Dean battled away before Kailesh gained some leeway later in the afternoon to finally win 3/2.
Special congratulations to Matthew Cormack – his 11th Match Play Championship win! Very difficult to see anyone emulating this feat!
Junior – Erik Jorgensen seemed in control of the match until the middle of the back nine. Glen Larsen won the 15th and 16th to get the match back to 1, before they both had pars on the 17th. Glen then sank a long putt for a par on the 18th, and surprisingly Erik missed his short putt for the half. Down the 19th they went,and Erikneeded 2 extra holes to win the Match Play Championship on the 20th after winning the Stroke Play at the end of last year.
C Grade -John Hill and Mark Boucher had a tight match throughout with John finally edging the win on the 17th green by 2/1.
D Grade - Robin Bone was in charge of this match until the last few holes. Mike Hyams won 3 of the last 5 holes and squared the match on the last hole, before finally winning it on the 19th green.
Mid-Week Captains
This promised to be a close battle between 2 very steady golfers – Bruce Renshaw and Colin McGowan. Bruce gained some measure of control and comfort in the front nine during the heavy rain and led by 3up at the turn. They traded holes early on the back nine as the weather got better, but Bruce closed out the match comfortably by 5/3. Congratulations, Bruce – another title!
UPCOMING EVENTS
The Match Committee made some changes to the schedule over the next month or so, partly due to the interruption by the Covid lock-down.
BOOTH CUP – ROUND 1 – SATURDAY APRIL 3RD
PRESIDENTS FOURSOMES – PLAYED OVER CONSECUTIVE SATURDAYS THIS YEAR – MAY 1ST AND 8TH.
WAIATARUA TROPHY – NEW DATES WILL BE ADVISED LATER.