Old Hickory stuck in neutral

Our Old Hickory team remains stuck in neutral after the latest round at Takaka as Motueka won for the second month in a row to maintain its healthy lead at the top of the Club of the Year standings.

Despite a cracker day, a Pohara course lengthened by recent heavy rain got the better of most of the field, with no-one playing to their handicap.

Mike Hay topped the individual scoring with 35 stableford points to lead his Motueka team to a best four total of 128 and a one-point win over hosts Takaka - with Graham Bradley showing the way on 34 - who pipped Nelson - for whom Simon Hassan and Dave Harley also posted 34  -  on countback for second.

Waahi Taakaro finished off the pace in fourth with 121 points, with Graham Eggers (32) and Dave Huntley (31) our best performers. Peter Watson and Phil Sellers chipped in with 29 each which was just over the average score. Grant Fergusson (24) and Barry Rhodes (18) found the going pretty tough.

There was a tight battle for the popgun before Tasman (113) , the combined Golden Downs-Redstone team (111) and Totaradale (110) just sneaked ahead of Greenacres (109).

Five players - Dave Duggan, Dave Harley, Mike Hay, Steve Lawson and Brian Biggs - bagged a two each.

The results mean that after five rounds Motueka (920 points) has widened its lead over Takaka (891) and Tasman (885) with Nelson (863) in fourth. Waahi Taakaro falls back to fifth (846). We are followed by Totaradale (831), Greenacres (818) and Golden Downs-Redstone (801).

The next round is at Totaradale on July 2.