A vocal crowd of golf players and spouses watched the finals of this year’s summer putting competition. In a new format to the draw to reduce walkovers in the early rounds, the resultant finals were played as a round robin format between three players on either side of the draw.

In a change from last year, this years final was an all Men event with all the Women having been early casualties.

The Greenkeepers had prepared a very slick putting circuit with the green like glass and hole layout challenging from the very short puts to a long par 3 like hole.  The layout had a touch of  “Dennis” about it if I may say so, as it was a very testing track.  A very good course for putters at this high level of competition nevertheless.

Results:

Group A

Barry Stevens played Hugh Goodman in a close encounter before Hugh finished the match on the 17th hole 2 up.

Barry then played Doug Clemann and missed a chance on the 18th to seal a win before Doug bounced back and won the 20th hole to win the match.

Doug then played Hugh Goodman, and by this stage had his eye in and finished the match 5/4.  With two wins, Doug earnt his spot in the grand final.

Group B

Peter Waters continued on his 2016 winning form with a very tight win over Dave Vorwerg finishing the match 2 up. It was an ominous sign as Peter sank some very good long putts.

Pete then played Craig Hams and the 1st 9 holes was fairly even with Craig saving a very long missed 1st putt on the 9th to square that hole. Craig then hit his straps and sank everything in sight, finishing the match in great style winning 5/4 over Peter.

At one game each to Peter and Craig, it seemed they might be going towards a sudden death knock out game with all three players in the same match, if Dave Vorwerg could beat Craig Hams in what was possibly the last round robin match.

Dave and Craig battled well with each taking the lead at one stage but in the end, Craig had his putting stick on fire and eventually won 3 /2 up, putting Craig straight into the grand final playoff against Doug Clemann.

The putting final between Doug Clemann and Craig Hams was another tight match through the first 9 holes without either securing a match winning lead.

The putting was excellent with some great putts holed by both players, however Craig finished in top gear winning the contest on the 16th hole 3 up-2 to go.

A great win and well deserved.

2017 Putting Champ Craig Hams with runner up Doug Clemann.

Congratulations to everyone who competed.

Andy Bassett

Men’s Captain.