The Woody team travelled over to Bottle Lake last Sunday for our next round fixture in the Woodward Cup 2020 and were pleased to see good crowds watching on a beautiful winter’s day.
Our opponents on Sunday were Hororata, who themselves got off to an ok start with a draw in round one. Due to the Covid announcement last week, this allowed Matt McLean & Rhian Hamilton to become available to the side, but we went with the same side as round 1, and boy, did it pay off!!!
The team were fantastic from front to back and pulled in a 7-1 win against a good Hororata side, and this emphatic result has put Harewood top of the table after 2 rounds.
Comprehensive wins for Scott Manyweathers, Manyweathers throwing a barrage of birdies early on, and never let Owen Miller back in, and run out to a solid 6&5 win. Daniel Lundt also had a superb 5&4 win against Steve Bell and Lundt is showing some good form early in the season.
Kerry Branson had a ding dong battle against Andrew Inch, and the match ebbed and flowed over the course of the round, with never more than one or two holes in it, but Kerry turn on his recent good form down the stretch and came home strong, putting his opponent under some real pressure, to win his 17th and 18th holes and gain a 2 up win for the team. Branson closing his match out in perfect fashion, by stiffing is second shot into his 18th hole (17th @ the Bottle), and his opponent having to hole his second shot to try and force a half and a great win for our number 7.
Gavin O’Hara playing number 8 for the second week running got off to the perfect start, getting up early, winning 3 of the first 4 holes, and then playing solid golf for the duration of his round, and never really letting his opponent back into the match. Throwing in back to back birdies around the turn on 7&8, from then on his opponent Roy Stieller found it hard to make up any real ground, with birdies hard to come by on the firm and fast Bottle Lake Greens, Gavin saw his match out with a solid 3&1 win. The top pair again didn’t disappoint, McLean keeping up his 100% record with a 1 up win over Dominic Brettkelly and holding off Hororata’s number 1.
Josh Smith also brough home a 1up win for the team, closing out his match with a beautiful left to right downhill swinging birdie putt from 20 feet to defeat Mark Weatherly, which put a smile on the big man’s face.
Our import James Howard got his first victory of the season with a powerful ball striking display in beating Anton Fouchee with a 2&1 win, to get his campaign off and running for the side. Harewood sit proudly at the top of the table on 4 points, and +12 games.
This week the side travel to Russley to take on Pegasus and if any of our members would like to come out and support, the team would really appreciate seeing some well-known friendly faces, and the chance to watch some of Canterbury’s best golfers.