Gisborne - East Coast golf roundup

PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Brian Morrissey can look back on his golf career with plenty of satisfaction. He's represented the district, won the East Coast Open, club championship titles and broken his age. And last week he added another accolade to his collection — the 2019 Gisborne East Coast Veteran Golfers' Society's Player of the Year. Morrissey finished on 52 points to win the McGregor Trophy, four points ahead of Te Puia Springs' Peter Harrison. Morrissey has also given much to the golfing scene through his voluntary work. His most recent and evocative contribution is a carved wooden dog that stands near the 11th green at the Poverty Bay course. A custom of patting it on the head as a player walks past is being encouraged. Picture supplied

Gisborne Park

OPOTIKI earned a place on Rod Moore's favourite golf course list after achieving perfection on Saturday.

Moore holed his tee shot on the 121-metre sixth hole for the second ace of his career. The first was at his home course in March last year.

That was with a pitching wedge. His latest was an 8-iron in only his second experience of the Opotiki course.

From the elevated tee and into a strong wind, Moore took the 'hit it as hard as possible' approach after watching the first player in his four shank his tee shot.

'I looked up and saw it was on a perfect line to the flag but didn't know if the distance was right as it went pretty high and was holding up in the breeze.

A group who called up Moore's four watched as his ball landed about a foot to the side of the hole.

'From where I was standing it looked to take one bounce and spun back to the hole. The boys behind the green threw their hands up in the air cheering, as did we on the tee box.'

Word of his feat filtered through the course quickly.

'As I finished out the round, at least 30 people came up to me, congratulating me on the hole-in-one. I'm not sure how they knew it was me because I didn't know any of them.

'It definitely felt better than my first one (on Park's 14th hole). I think it was because of the difficulty of the hole and the amount of wind that day.'

Moore's ace helped him to 77-8-69 and 37 stableford points, which was enough to win him a ham.

The club also gave him six golf balls.

'Some guys from Kawerau Golf Club reckon it's a tradition at their club that if you get a hole-in-one they shout you. I ended up having something like seven Jim Beams stacked in front of me. I was supposed to drive home. Needless to say I didn't.'

Electrinet Park results, SUNDAY — Men's stableford: R Grace 40, B Huhu 38, J Glassford 37.

Women's stableford Competition.

Winner: M Alley 42 on c/b.

Twos: P Wellard, M Emery, J Morley.

Saturday — Men's stableford: E Parkin 44.

Twos: S Peneha, B Huhu.

WEDNESDAY (Dec 4) — Women's stableford: A Richardson.

Twos: A Richardson, P Shaw.

Poverty Bay

POWER and touch. Glenn Morley delivered both those in his eagle-2 on the 14th hole in last Thursday's stableford competition.

Morley drove the 308-metre hole then sank the putt for eagle on his way to 74-6-68 and victory in the division 1 men's stableford.

Forty-points and over is the common theme as the course dries out and players get plenty of roll.

Colin Christie (41pts) and Murray (42) won their divisions in Saturday competition.

Nick Richardson's 77-10-67, for 41 points. made it two Sunday division 1 wins on the trot.

Stu Harbottle duffed his first tee shot of the day then proceeded to have 86-20-66, for 42 points, and win the Sunday div 2 stableford.

The 'No.1 event on the ‘Hamateur' golf circuit' — the First Light Frozen/Taste One Christmas tournament is at Poverty Bay on Sunday.

Assemble at 9am for a 9.30am shotgun start.

The first 144 paid entries will make up the field. Enter at the pro shop.

SUNDAY — Men's stableford, division 1: N Richardson 41, M Callaghan 37, D Patumaka 37, K White 36, G Morley 36, M Jefferson 36.

Division 2: S Harbottle 42, D Pirimona 41, B Pratt 40, K Daniels 40.

Twos: R Johnstone.

Approach: P Stewart.

SATURDAY — Men's stableford, division 1: C Christie 41, T Goldsmith 40.

Division 2: M Smith 42, B Read 38, R Fletcher 38.

Approach: S Andreassen.

THURSDAY (Dec 5) — Men's stableford, division 1: G Morley 40, I Murphy 39, A Abrahams 36, M Higham 36, M Dodgshun 36.

Division 2: B Allen 39, C Christie 38, S Harbottle 37.

Twos: A White 2, G Morley.

Approach: A Reedy.

Jackpot: A White.

Te Puia Springs

COME one, come all. The Cooks Couriers Christmas tournament is on Saturday and with it comes the chance to win a ham or a pork.

More details below.

Iritanga and Pete Ngarimu won the McDowell Cup mixed pairs stableford on Sunday with 47 points, two ahead of Georgina Roberts and Jim Devery, and Hazel and Jack Miratana.

SUNDAY — McDowell Cup mixed pairs stableford: I Ngarimu/P Ngarimu 47, G Roberts/J Devery 45, H Miratana/J Miratana 45, R Ngatai/J Babbington-Welsh 43, P Summersby/G Summersby 43.

Men's stableford: H Rasmussen 36, K Waitoa 36, P Harrison 36, N Dewes 36, J Forrester 36.

COMING UP: SATURDAY, Cooks Couriers Ham and Pork Christmas tournament, men's and women's sections, rolling start from 10.30am to midday; SUNDAY, McDowell Cup round 2, haggle for others.

Patutahi

DAVE Skudder and Colleen Wesche are the Guy Farmer trophy winners for 2019.

The pair combined for a South African mixed pairs score of 92.

Peter 'Chopper' Summersby defied his nickname in winning the junior men's division net on Sunday with 80-20-60 on countback from Brian Tietjen.

A notable name enjoying a more sedate pastime these days is multiple world jetsprinting champion Peter Briant. He was third on Sunday with 95-32-63. Expect a victory from him soon.

Dwayne Russell looks on course for red figures after winning the senior division men's net with 1-over 71-9-62.

Kath McLatchie had her best round since returning to the game in November. She won the women's net on Sunday with 91-28-63.

TUESDAY — Women's net: M Philip 104-30-74, J Ewart 101-25-76.

SUNDAY — Guy Farmer South African mixed pairs stableford, winners: D Skudder/C Wesche 92.

Men's stableford, senior division: D Russell 62, A Hindmarsh 63, H Harris 65, H Brown 65.

Junior division: P Summersby 60, B Tietjen 60, D Skudder 62, P Briant 63.

Women's net: K McLatchie 63, S Robertson 64.

Twos: J Neilson.

FRIDAY — Meat pack nine-hole stableford, division 1: A Blakeman 23, G Tattersfield 22, C Parker 21, T Green 21 on c/b.

Junior division: D Quinn 25, C Kirkpatrick 23, T Thorpe 23, P Summersby 22 on c/b.

Waikohu

WAIKOHU Golf Club's AGM is on Sunday, December 22, at 10am at the clubhouse. It will be followed by by the Guys v Dolls competition.