Turning back the clock

Jason Millhouse (15) found some of his form from previous years to shoot the best score of the day in the Saturday stableford competition at Mount Gambier Golf Club.

Millhouse has suffered the golfer’s doldrums of late, with his handicap drifting out over the past months.

Saturday saw him back in full swing, shooting an excellent 1 over the card 37 off the stick on the front nine, to post an impressive 25 points.

Consisting of six pars, two bogies and a single birdie on the par 4 fifth.

Consecutive pars on the 10th and 11th holes had his score continue to climb until a speed bump on the 12th where he only managed to add a single point for a double bogey 6.

Bogeys on the 13th and 14th holes matched his handicap before another single point due to a bogie on the par 5 fifteenth hole.

A stumble on the par 3 sixteenth, with a double bogey 5 and then finishing with a pair of bogies on the last two holes had Millhouse close the back nine with 16 points and a total of 41 points.

This gave Millhouse an easy win in B Grade (11-16) from runner up Wayne Elliott (13) on 37 points. Elliott has only recently returned to golf after a sojourn playing lawn bowls.

Recording 17 points on the front nine, before improving on the back nine with an extra 20 points.

A Grade (-9.0 – 10) had the tightest contest with Russell Lewis (8) taking the win with 39 points.

Eighteen points on the outward nine, with 4 pars 4 bogies and a birdie on the seventh hole.

Lewis improved on his inward nine with 7 pars and 2 bogies to score 21 points.

Only one shot back, runner-up in A Grade was Andrew Stark (4) with 38 points.

Like Lewis, Starks round got better the further he went, only scoring 16 points on the front nine before accumulating another 22 on the back nine.

The highlight being an eagle 2, on the tough par 4, 14th hole to record a rare 5 points.

David Millard (20) continued his recent good form as the winner in C Grade (17.0 – 45.0) with 40 points.

Millard had consistent splits of 20 points on both his nines.

Runner up in C Grade was Kevin Lennon (20) with 38 points. Lennon, a long-standing St Kilda supporter, started his day well, scoring 22 points on the front nine, which included a birdie on the par 3 eighth hole.

Keeping his momentum going Lennon, added a further 8 points on the next 3 holes, which had his score at 30 points with 6 holes to play.

Unfortunately, like his AFL team, a few bad decisions saw him wipe 3 of the last 6 holes, adding a further 16 points for the nine.

Seven other players beat their handicaps on Saturday by scoring 37 points Chris Price (9), Craig Foster (7), Stacy Fiegert (9), Richard Gosling (2), Zax Shanks (7), Wayne Davidson (14) and Joshua MacLean (13).

Both Shanks and MacLean would have ben disappointed to only score a single point each on the last 2 holes, which prevented them from taking out one of the major prizes.

A score of 33 points or better was required to earn one of the 29 balls handed out.

Adrian Ballintyne (9) took out the Pro Shot on the eighth hole, and Peter Waters (12) won the sixteenth, with both players claiming the extra balls for sinking their birdie putts.

JULY 11 RESULTS

In terrible conditions, a very small field of 16 players were able to complete their rounds – hard to say whether they were brave or foolish to take to course the previous Thursday.

A countback had Henry Forbes (15) pip Craig Foster (6) with both finishing with 35 points.

Forbes started with 15 points on the front nine, before finding form on the back nine with 20 points.

Forbes scoring five pars and four bogies was an excellent result in the trying conditions.

Foster on the other hand started by playing to his handicap on the front nine with 18 points.

A few too many bogies on the back nine had him add a further 17 points.

Thirty points or better on a countback was required to win one of the four balls handed out and pro shot winners were Chris Gabriel (14) on the eighth, and Peter Dempsey (8) on the 16th.