Last Saturday and Sunday players competed in the 3rd & 4th Rounds of Maclean Men’s Golf Championship.
Round 3 was played in rapidly drying conditions and a difficult swirling wind in the afternoon.
A Grade – Shaun Rose (77) increased his second-round lead to eight shots ahead of Mark Rae (78). An 82 from Geoff Grayson and 79 from David Bruton secured their places in the top four for the final day but it was all there for Shaun to falter and offer a glimmer of hope for the chasers.
B Grade – Brendan Reeves (84) shared the lead after Coby Tabor slipped slightly to an 88. Sean McFarlane (89) was just five shots back. Tony Johnson bounced back into the frame with an 83.
C Grade – Brett O’Connor had a seemingly unassailable lead with another (89) pulling away from the wayward Mark Williams (99).
D Grade – Ryan Wisley slipped back bit with a worrying 105 but he was still 11 shots ahead of anyone else in the grade going into the final day.
In the nett competition:
A Grade – Peter Saunders had an excellent 69 to pip David Bruton and Stephen Smith on 71.
B Grade – Tony Johnson just pipped frequent Grafton visitor John Phillips and Geoffrey Johnson.
C Grade – Doug Taylor’s 69 just closed Graham Eggleton in second and Brett O’Connor in third.
D Grade – Stephen South with a best round of the day 68 took first place in front of a welcome return to the podium for Graham Howard (74) and Gregory White (76)
NTP’s: 2 – Dennis Runge; 7 – Patrick Vacchinato; 11 – David Ball; 17 – (almost in the hole) Anne d’marcy.
Thistle on 9 – Shaun Rose.
Ball prizes down to 76 nett all grades.
Round 4 and a perfect blue sky and a kinder wind greeted the hopeful, dreaming of a championship victory.
A Grade – despite a couple of stray shots on the first nine, Shaun Rose gradually pulled away from the faltering following field.
His final round 78 and total gross of 304 was just too good for Mark Rae (83 – total 317), Geoffrey Grayson (80 – 318) and David Bruton (85 – 328) just missed out on fourth place to an improving Luke Many (84 – 328).
B Grade – Brendan Reeves (82 total 340) was an easy winner, nine shots clear of Sean McFarlane (86 – 349) and Coby Tabor (87 – 354).
Sean also became Junior champion.
C Grade – Brett O’Connor breezed through his final round and finished on 362 a distance clear of Daniel Kelly (388) and Mark Williams (390). Glen Crooks was close fourth on 391.
D Grade – The champion for this grade was Ryan Wisley who kept his score together to finish on 404, fourteen shots clear of Ray Anderson (418) and Ted Harvey both on same score.
Nett scores on the day: Brendan Reeves wins grade a with 70, Tom Martin was second.
B Grade – Stephen MacMahon won with72, Daniel Kelly 73
C Grade – John Roberts 73, Phillip Killerian 77.
D Grade – Ray Anderson 71, Ryan Wisley 74.
NTP’s: 2 – Tony Johnson, 7 – Rod Smith, 11 – Brett O’Connor, 17- Shaun Rose.
Thistle hole: Sean McFarlane.
Overall nett prize for four rounds was Geoff Grayson on 290 (A Grade) Brendan Reeves 288 (B Grade), Brett O’Connor 282 (C Grade) and Ryan wisely 288 (D Grade).