Autumn has arrived, the days are going shorter and the nights longer. The weather has cooled this week, and the rain on Wednesday only wet the dry ground. The course continues to be dry in the rough and the fairways have plenty of run. March is a busy competition month for golf. The Harewood 4BBB competition first round of match play is this weekend with the men’s winner progressing to play round 2 on Saturday 27^th of March. A reminder that all matches need to be played on or before the next round. Easter is early this year and falls on Saturday 4^th of April. There will be an 11:30am shotgun start that day.

The challenge that the black tees presented to players in the monthly medal last week did not seem to bother some players. There were some great low scores in all grades. Well done to all those that played and hopefully enjoyed a different set of tees than the regular white tees played on Saturday. The green keeping team had worked hard though the week to sand the greens then cut and roll them to produce the fast and true greens that we played on last Saturday. It was another very busy day on the course with 131 players in the men’s field and another 25 in the lady’s field.

Results:

Top Dog Carpark: Hamish Hodgson

Enjoy your golf this weekend.

Please keep repairing your pitch marks on the green – if you can’t find yours do someone else’s!

Tuesday 09 March

Stableford

Winner: Lesley Hedges 44 pts (with an awesome 78 gross)

Runner-up: Kelly Nicholls 42 pts

Third: Young Ja Eum 41 pts

Fourth: Kerrie Cady 40 pts

Fifth: Marie Bell 40 pts

Net Eagles: Karen Munro and Helen Bishop

Twos: Lynne Ryder

9 Hole Ladies: Wednesday 10 March

Stroke

Winner: Val Hampton 34 nett

Runner-up: Min Kim 35 nett

Closest to the Pin: Robyn Ogle

A Ladies Callaway PW with a blue shaft was left on the course on Tuesday March 2^nd so if anyone picked it up and put it in their bag can they please hand it in to the pro shop.

Date: Monday 8^th March

Game: Stableford

Division One

1^st: Tomas Hruby 39

2^nd: Dong Cho 37

3^rd: Ramiro Guerrero 35

Division Two

1^st: Darryl Dowthwaite 40

2^nd: John Yates 34

3^rd: John Hooper 33

Division Three

1^st: Robert Gay 38

2^nd: Phil Plunket 33

3^rd: Geoff Taylor 28

Date: Thursday 11^th March

Game: Stableford

Division One

1^st: Alan Dickson 36

2^nd: Brian Jones 35

3^rd: Cyril White 35

Division Two

1^st: Bill Turner 37

2^nd: Ted Zhang 33

3^rd: Simon Hubble 32

Match play

Division One

         · David Lim bt George Grieve 19th

         · Charlie Su bt Jos Steetskamp 4/2

         · Jin Kim bt Kevin Stewart 5/4

         · David Williams-Jones bt Dong Cho 1up

Division Two

         · Dennis Longdon bye

         · Bruce Gillespie bt Dave Crombie 3/1

         · Darryl Dowthwaite bt Ramiro Guerrero 21st

         · John Yates bt Barry Crowther 3/2

Division Three

         · Phil Plunket bt Doug McKeown def

         · Robert Gay bt Maurice Hope 3/2

         · Ray Polson bt Derek Rastrick 3/1

The penultimate night of the AMG Twilight Series 1 saw 47 eager players battle the northeasterly on the testing B9. The Ladies division saw Annette Pringle extend her lead with an amazing 4^th series win and 20 points, 2 clear of Jo McNicholl on countback from Lynley Gainsford. NTP on #13 was Lynley. So, Annette leads the table by 10 on 84 stablefords (best 4 rounds counting) from Lydia Pomeroy and Lynley so it looks like the interest will be on who takes the minor placings for the last night on Tuesday. On the Men’s side Brad Milne came in with an impressive 23 points from Jason Blair on countback over Robert Gillespie, both with 22. NTP on #15 was debutant Emil Collins. The leaderboard is a little tighter on the Men’s side with Tai Tapu member Jason enjoying a 4-shot lead on 84 points over Brad, with the in-form Tony Carroll only 1 shot further back on 79. It will take something special to pip Jason so again, minor placings will be where the pressure lies. The overall tables after Round 5 are attached – not great reading for some of us!

A reminder that just to be on the safe side of darkness we will get underway at 5:45pm on our last night. Book early, buy a raffle for one of those magnificent meat packs courtesy of Merivale Fresh Choice, enjoy the front 9, grab a drink and great meal then sit back and relax as the winners are announced. As usual, my best chance lies with the raffle!

The Woodward, Blank & Simon Cup competitions are scheduled to get underway in early August. Planning has started early and we will be communicating registrations of interest and trial dates to eligible members shortly.