Club results for 26/9/26

Experience is often the extra club in the bag when it comes to matchplay.

And two former senior club champions Andy Isle and Keri Kotua have it in spades and used it to overcome their younger opponents in their quarter-final clashes on a windless and overcast Saturday made for good scoring.

Andy went into his match against defending senior champion Pete Green as the underdog but got on top after they halved their opening three holes and didn't let up. Driving the ball well off the blue tees and hitting a lot of greens in regulation, Andy won No 4 and 5 with pars and No 6 with a bogey to seize control. 

Pete birdied the par five 9th and parred No 10 to cut the margin to one but gave one back at the next with a bogey. Andy parred the par three 14th to re-establish a three-up lead. Pete responded by parring No 15 but Andy closed it out by parring the next for a 3/2 win, shooting an excellent 79 off the stick in the process.

Fresh off three wins from three matches for the Nelson intermediate rep team at Greenacres last weekend, Keri went into his match against Jarrod Huss as the favourite. But after winning his opening hole, he found himself three down after eight holes as Jarrod binned a long putt for a birdie two at No 2 and then won three on the trot from No 6 with some solid shot-making.

But showing admirable composure, Keri won No 9 and 10 with pars to get back in the game. Jarrod went two-up with a par at the difficult uphill No 13, but lost both No 15 and 16 with double bogies as his radar deserted him. After halving the 17th in bogies, they went down the last all square which when it really mattered Keri played impeccably, putting his second close to the pin after a good drive. He claimed the 1-up victory after Jarrod missed a mid-range putt for par.

In the match of the day, a net round off the white tees, Maurice Woodhouse rolled back the years to take the honours with a fine net 68, Playing off a 20-handicap, Mo went round in 88 to also claim maximum Barkman Trophy points and improve his chances of qualifying for the Shootout final.

Peter Watson warmed up for his club champs semi-final next Saturday with a net 69 to finish second. The veteran leftie was just the second golfer on the day to break 80 with a solid 78.

Gareth Edwards was another to show good form, coming in third with a tidy 71. He was followed by Mick Leggett (73) and the quartet of Phil Roger, Bryan Ramsey, Andrew Bosselmann and Phil Sellers on 74, with Phil missing out on the last Barkman point on countback.

Jarrod shared the twos money with Graham Eggers who grabbed one on No 11, while Pete G was closest to the pin on No 2.

Countbacks were needed to find the winner of the 9-hole par competition off the front nine, with Sally Ma getting the nod ahead of Jack Denton and Andrew Dean after all finished with healthy +3 scores. Paul Tunnicliff took fourth on another countback from Paul McCrae after they each posted +2. John Dryden, John Dixon and Mark Sherlaw also finished in credit at +1. For the umpteenth week, no-one managed a two so the jackpot continues to rise.

Next Saturday (Oct 3) the semi-finals of the club champs will be played off the blue tees. The draw is: Senior grade; Nick Riddell v Andy Isle, James Campion v Keri Kotua. Intermediate grade; Peter Watson v Graham Galt, Bryce Vincent v Andrew Bosselmann. Junior A grade; Harry Ambrose v Richard Pearson, Paul Tunnicliff v Gareth Edwards. Junior B grade: Andrew Craig v Andrew Dodson, Dave Huntley v Jack Denton.

The remainder of the 18-holers will play a par round, while the 9-holers will play a net round off the back nine.