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Grafton Women’s Golf

ABOVE: Janette Blair took out the Dorothy Sparkes Memorial Rose Bowl during the May tournament. Image: Contributed.
Thursday’s 36-hole silver cup feature event for the May tournament had an exciting finish, Armidale’s Amanda Carr crowned the winner with 163, one up on Coolangatta-Tweed’s Jodie Rockliff. The 36-hole nett winner was Louise Frickman of Kyogle on 143. Former Grafton ladies club champion, Janette Blair, was the winner of the Dorothy Sparkes Memorial Rose Bowl with a score of 148, which is a closed nett event for Grafton players only. Another player of note was Grafton’s Judy McFarlane who secured an eagle on the difficult new par four 15th hole. A highlight on the Friday afternoon was the now infamous Brien Family Shootout competition. Many players stepped up to the plate in front of the crowd, although not all were dressed for the occasion. Yamba’s Kim Wiblen, representing Maclean, landed her shot closest to the hole and received the prize donated by the Brien Family together with the mounted perpetual shotgun, where Kim’s name will be inscribed alongside the legends who have gone before her. Scores in Wednesday’s 4BBB event reflected the difficulty encountered by most players with the greens gaining a not so kind reputation. Winners were the Grafton combination of Trish Clarke (41) and Margaret Hall (35) with a score of 42 points on a count back from Helen Packwood (29) and Kathy McMullan (26). Third place was awarded to the team of Mary Atkins (20) and Anna Bidstrup (25) who recorded a score of 41 points. The gross event held in conjunction on Wednesday was taken out by 2016 winners Jodie Rockliff and Janette Blair with 32 from Sue Reguson and Jean Dahl on 28. On Saturday, the final event of the Tournament, an18-hole mixed American foursomes competition, resulted in a hat trick for the winning pair following their wins in 2015 and 2016, the talented duo of Jodie Rockliff and Greg Harvison again combined flawlessly for a well-executed round of 70 hits to claim the title, with daylight between them and the next best score. The runners up were seven shots adrift where the new pairing of our junior player, Willow Harris, and ladies captain Peg James combined for a score of 77. Nett winners were the experienced team of Noeline Smith and Jason Casserly who struck a fine round to come in with 66.75 from the veteran combination, and many times past champions of this event, Sally Beresford and Matthew Worthing on 68.5. Players travelled from a wide area for the Tournament including Redland Bay, Coolangatta-Tweed Heads, Murwillumbah, Kyogle, Lismore, Byron Bay, Ballina, Maclean, Tamworth, Armidale, Woolgoolga, Coffs Harbour, Maitland, Cromer and Mona Vale. Julie White