Sports

Grafton Golf Opening Day draws near

Only three weeks to go before our official opening day of the 2016 golf programme. The format as usual will be a 4 person Ambrose, with nominations now open. To secure your preferred time slot it will be to your advantage to organise and nominate your teams as soon as possible. The normal playing conditions will apply, with the feature requirement being that each team members must play a minimum of three tee shots with your score card to be marked accordingly, or unfortunately be excluded from the results. Sponsors will be McLennan Earthmoving who have been associated with this particular event for many years, for which we are really appreciative. The opening mixed event for 2016 is scheduled for Sunday 14th February. Nominations are now also open for any intending players. The format will be the always popular 2 person Ambrose and will commence with a shotgun start at 11am. Grafton Motor Group will provide the trophies for the day, which continues the long association of the Toyota brand name with this particular event. For those players who are maybe struggling with their game at the moment, there is a possible remedy to your perceived problems. Through the courtesy of our golf professional, Mark Harvison, group lessons will be held on the 8th, 15th, 22nd February commencing at 9.30am and will finish at 10.30am each day. These lessons are open to both men and lady golfers. The four finalists in the Summer teams competition have been almost decided with only the 4th and final spot to be decided. Two teams, Elders Insurance and Elgas lead on 16 points each. Next best is Clarence Coast Motors on 15; Champas with 9 points; Classics on 8 points. It will all depend on the results of these last two teams who will grab the 4th and final place for the semi finals. In the individual component of the series, members of the Clarence Coast Motors and Elgas teams dominate in the men’s division with Clarence Coast Motors team holding three places in the top 10, behind the Elgas team who hold onto six places. However representing team Uthless, Ian Langley holds the top spot with 105 points from Clarence Coast Motors representatives, Brian Hewitt on 103 who leads fellow team member John Mannell with 102 points. In the ladies division of the Summer teams individual competition, Sharyn O’Grady continues to dominate on 103 points. Next best is Glenda Chad on 97 from Gail Knell on 95 points. There remains plenty of interest in both the teams competition and individual sections of the Summer Teams Competition with the final results not officially decided until the completion of the 7th and final round this week. Veteran golfer Kevin Vaughan (20) dominated last Saturday’s 18 hole Stableford with 42 points to claim the overall win from the 123 starters. The A Grade winner was John Spry (4) with 38 from our new Club captain, David Morgan (8), next best on 37 points. Adam Carroll (10) recorded the second best score on the day with 39 points to claim B Grade. Tim Newsome (12) was awarded the r/up spot with 36. Only one point separated the winners of C Grade with Ron Hulm (18) winning that grade with 37 points over Karl Studd’s (15) 36. A countback was required to determine D Grade with both John Mannell and Daryl Duncanson recording 37 points. John eventually being awarded that grade. To earn a proball, you needed a score of 33 points or better on a countback. Check the official results sheet to determine if you were one of the skillfull 7. Next Saturday we will have a 18 hole Stableford which will also incorporate the 8th and final round of the Bendigo Bank Summer Consistency Cup. Hopefully we will have the final results of that series in next weeks column. Ray Hopwood