Leatai Shield regained

Waahi Taakaro won its fourth trophy in a week by retaking the Leatai Shield from Blenheim Golf Club on Saturday (Dec 6) to cap off a memorable run of results.

Fresh from retaining the Ryder Cup in our annual match with Nelson last Sunday and our Old Hickory team winning both the trophy and Club of the Year on Thursday, we comfortably defeated Blenheim in our annual match on our home course.

Playing off the blue and yellow tees in hot conditions, Waahi Taakaro's 24 golfers posted an average net score of 75.751, while the 16 visitors totalled an average of 79.437.

Waahi Taakaro golfers filled the first nine places and 15 of the top 20 spots to take full advantage of playing at home.

Matt Tomczyk - fresh from his Ryder Cup heroics - won the match of the day on countback from last Saturday's club winner Jason Lee and Jimmy Gargiulo after all carded net 69. An Old Hickory champ, Jack Denton, finished fourth on 70, which included the only two of the day, at No 5. Next were Neil McLaren and Maurice Woodhouse on 71. They were followed by Phil Sellers (72), with the trio of Craig Barron, Paul Tunnicliff and the leading Blenheim golfer, Nigel Smith, making up the top 10 with 73 apiece.

Ali Mawby and Blenheim's Robyn Breen were the leading women on 75 each.

The Leatai Shield win followed an embarrassing home loss to Blenheim two years ago and a thrashing at Blenheim last year. 

We thank the Blenheim contingent for making the trip over and for their camaraderie and for club volunteers Amy Austin and Lewis Wilson for putting on some tasty food afterwards.

The best of the 9-holers was Andrew Dean who won on countback from Andrew Green after both came in with net 32 for the front nine. Warren Green was next with 33.

Next Saturday (Dec 13) we play the second round of the Burns Philp Cup, which is a stableford round off the blue tees starting at the summer time of 9am. The 9-holers play a net round off the back nine starting at 11am.