Old Hickory team triumphs at home

Our Old Hickory team ended the year on a high after capturing the veterans’ trophy at home on Thursday (Dec 2).

Led by a stellar 43 stableford points from Graham Strickett – the equal best of the day – Waahi Taakaro took full advantage of being at home to total 154 points, six clear of Motueka.

Graham received good support from captain Tom Kennedy (39), Ian Hanford (37) and Bryan Ramsey (35), while our non-counting scores came from Ray Hopgood and Barry Rhodes with 33 points apiece.

And just to show we have plenty of depth our two ring-ins to round up the field, Phil Sellers and Richard Pearson, scored 40 and 39 points respectively.

Just under a third of the field of 44 played to or above their handicap off the white tees, despite calm conditions and a course in excellent order.

Graham’s round of 77 off the stick was the best of the day and translated into a net 65. It included one of only two twos, the other being scored by Greenacres’ Chris Ruddlesden who also had a good day in shooting a 78 for 39 stablefords.

A good friend of Waahi Taakaro’s, Andrew Fenemor of Motueka, finally tamed the course in shooting an excellent 78 for an equal top 43 stablefords to guide his team to second place with a team total of 148.

Greenacres was third with 142 points followed by Tasman (140), Totaradale (139) and Takaka (138).

Nelson (136) finished with the popgun, just four days after their Ryder Cup team were thrashed by Waahi Taakaro to complete a miserable time on the Maitai Valley course.

Next year’s Old Hickory starts at Motueka on February 3.