Yesterday’s dramatic conclusion to the 2015 Owen McMicking Plate proved that the old adage “It ain’t over till it’s over” is still as relevant today as it was when it was coined many years ago.

This event, which is for the best 5 out of 8 Monthly Medal scores from March to October has a habit of throwing up the unexpected, and this year was no exception. Going into yesterday’s final round of the event Tom Sorrell held a 4 shot lead over Doug Clemann, a 5 shot lead over Peter Hartigan, and a 6 shot lead over Glenn Marsham, Geoff McDonald, and Jon Smith. Nick Lafferty was next, but a massive 10 shots behind Tom.

In the final round yesterday, none of the leading three players, Tom, Doug or Peter improved on their high scores of 77, 75, and 78 respectively, leaving the door open for some other contenders. Not only did they see the door open, but they barged through! Geoff McDonald’s 70 improved on his high score of 75 by 5 shots to fall just 1 shot short of Tom’s 358. Jon Smith, by virtue of a 70 improved his score by 6 to draw level with Tom, while Nick Lafferty, with a brilliant 69 improved his best 5 round tally by an amazing 10 shots to also draw level with Tom!

This left the leaderboard at the completion of the competition as follows:

So, at the completion of the event we had 3 players – Nick Lafferty, Jon Smith and Tom Sorrell- finish with the same best 5 round total of 358. Only two years ago we had a 4-way tie in this event after which the Men’s Golf Committee resolved that in future years there would be only a single winner. They determined that in the event of 2 or more players finishing with the same best 5 round total the event would be decided by count back. The count back procedure agreed upon was that the players 5^th card of the best 5 to qualify would be used, then the 4^th, 3^rd etc until we had a winner. The respective 5^th card to qualify scores for Nick, Jon and Tom were 69, 70 and 70, so by virtue of his better 5^th card to qualify Nick Lafferty is the winner of the 2015 Owen McMicking Plate. Congratulations Nick!!!

69 Players

Winners

• A Grade (0-13)   Jon Smith (13) 70 nett
• B Grade (14-21)  Keith Godridge (20) 68 nett  and Monthly Medal
• C Grade (22-36)  Mike Street (28) 70 nett

Best Gross Score: John Payne 77

Super Comp winner: Nick Lafferty 69 nett

NTP’s

• 4^th:  John Payne 4.3m
• 7^th:  Nathan Wardle 2.4m
• 14^th:  John Moor 1.6m
• 16th :  Merv Stubbs 2.0m

DTL Balls

• Nick Lafferty  69
• Peter Buttinger  70
• John Moor 70
• Anthony Sparkes 70
• Geoff McDonald  70
• John Payne 71
• Merv Stubbs  71
• Brett Windsor 71
• Bert Borg 72
• Phillipe du Plessis 72
• Peter Waters 72
• Ken Wardle 72
• Trevor Rickard 73
• Dave Vorwerg 73
• Peter Brownlie 73
• George Misson 74 on c/b from 3 others

Perfect weather conditions greeted contestants in the 2015 Putting Competition Finals this evening. On a night where quarter finals, semi-finals, and the grand final were played, it was Trish Owen who powered her way to victory with an awesome display of putting. Trish proved too good for the fellas that stood between her and victory, firstly dispatching Norm Hughes in her quarter final, then John Payne in her semi final, before overcoming a gallant John Eabry in the final. At one stage during her semi-final match Trish knocked in 6 consecutive 1 putters!

In direct contrast to Trish, John had a much easier run to reach the “granny”, not even having to get his putter out of the bag! Unfortunately Julie Howard (injured) had to give John a walkover in the quarter final, and neither Barry Stevens (ill) nor Oscar Harry (on school camp) were able to front for the semi-final. So after winning his first round match only, John found himself fighting it out in the Grand Final!

Congratulations to Trish, she put on a stunning performance!

Results of the finals were as follows:

Quarter Finals:

• Trish Owen defeated Norm Hughes 3 & 2
• John Payne defeated Tom Sorrell 2 & 1
• John Eabry won by walkover

Semi Finals:

• Trish Owen defeated John Payne 5 & 4
• John Eabry won by walkover

Grand Final:

• Trish Owen defeated John Eabry on 18^th.

Thanks to Josh for running the event, it was a lot of fun. Next year we plan to run the competition on a single day – probably a Sunday – with all rounds and finals completed on the day. It promises to be a great fun day!

Thanks also to those (Pam, John, Lynda etc) who helped Ros in the kitchen, and to those who made the effort to come along and lend the contestants support.

The winning team from the recently-held Leongatha Holden Scramble Qualifying event acquitted themselves very well in the Regional Final of the Holden Scramble event held at Sandhurst Club today, but just missed out on the placings.

The team comprising Dan Poynton, Tom Sorrell, Davern Goss and Marcus Luscombe (Woorayl), along with our own Pro Josh Hall contested the event which brings together the winners from qualifying events held thoughout southern Victoria. Our team posted a very creditable 9 under par 63 off the stick on the par 72 Sandhurst course, for a nett team score of 56.4. The winning team from Amstel Golf Club posted a nett 54.0, and now progress to the Australian final to be played at Novotel Twin Waters Resort on the Sunshine Coast.

Well done boys, you were certainly not discraced. For example, their nett 56.4 put them 2 shots ahead of the highly fancied Kingston Heath team that I scored for.

48 Players

The early season hot weather was matched by some equally hot scoring.  Congratulations to Grant McRitchie for posting the best score of the day, an impressive +6.

Welcome to new member, Ian Baker, who played his first comp round with us today.

Winners

• A Grade (0-20)   Grant McRitchie (16) +6
• B Grade (21-36)  John McClennan (21) +3 (on count back from 1 other)

NTP’s

• 4^th:  Chris Leaver 5.1m
• 7^th:  Bruce Hutton 7.1m
• 14^th:  Ian Barlow 2.8m
• 16th :  Allan Schache 2.6m

DTL Balls

• Rod Brown  +5
• Bob Smith  +3
• Allan Edney +2
• Allan Schache +2
• Steve Fisher +1
• Joe Lowell +1
• Keith Finney -square
• Peter Walsh – square
• Bruce Hutton -square
• Will Norden -1
• Barry Stevens -1
• Peter Waters -1 on c/b from 2 others

58 Players

Winners

• A Grade (0-15)   Daryl Prior (9) 37 pts
• B Grade (16-22)  Barry Stevens (16) 40 pts
• C Grade (23-36)  Geoff Maher (23) 37 pts

Super Comp winner: Bec Thomas 40 pts (on c/b)

NTP’s

• 4^th:  Dave Forbes 4.4m
• 7^th:  D. Prior 2.7m
• 14^th:  Rod Brown 0.56m
• 16th :  Jon Smith 1.7m

DTL Balls

• Grant McRitchie 36
• Peter Buttinger 36
• Peter Brownlie 35
• Geoff McDonald 34
• Bruce Hutton 34
• Nick Lafferty 33
• Chris Leaver 33
• Glenn Marsham 33

The third and final round of the Mark Edwards Thursday Championship was played today at Leongatha in near perfect golfing conditions. This stableford event which has been played over last 3 Thursdays, is a best 2 rounds of 3 competition.

With the leader after 2 rounds, Dylan Clark unable to play today due to work commitments, the event was wide open. Trevor Steer, just 1 behind Dylan after 2 rounds needed only to better his second round 33 points, while Peter Waters needed 33 points to draw level with him. Several others, including Kevin Scott, Jim Arnott, Mike Street and Rod Brown were also in contention.

As it eventuated, relatively few players bettered their 2 round scores. However, Peter Waters did score the 33 points he required to equal Dylan Clark’s best 2 round total of 71. With Peter having the better 2^nd card that counted towards his best 2 round total, he won the event on count back from the unlucky Dylan.

The leader board at the completion of the event was: