A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
A TEE box blunder, an air shot and an out of bounds eagle-par were part of the fun and games at another successful edition of the First Light Frozen/Taste One Christmas tournament on Sunday.
Bill Allen clearly likes this tournament. He shot an excellent round in the 2019 edition and his best score since then at the 2020 version to win the men's overall stableford.
His 85-18-67, for 41 points, would have been more had he not had to take a two-strike penalty after teeing off the second hole from outside the markers.
Keith Daniel was runner-up with 40 points, thanks to a putter he had to dip in ice water after the round.
Anne Witters, a familiar name on the club honours board, won the women's gross with 84 while greenkeeper William Brown, on a playing handicap of +4 off the Bay's white tees, won the men's gross with 1-under 71.
Opotiki duo Terry and Kala Reeve flew the visitors' flag high — Kala winning the overall women's gross with 40 points and Terry topping the division 3 men's stableford with 39.
Event sponsor Richard Owen was once again delighted with the response albeit not so impressed at having to shout for his “whisky” on the first hole.
His playing group almost featured a second air shot. Les Gunther, in tree trouble on the 17th, looked set to suffer the same fate only to inadvertently hit his ball out of trouble during his practice swing.
Pete Anderson made par the hard way on the par-4 seventh hole. After driving out of bounds, he bombed a second drive into the greenside bunker, then holed out for 2 (+2=4) — the second time he has done this.
SUNDAY — First Light Frozen/Taste One Christmas tournament, women's overall stableford: K Reeve 40.
Men's overall stableford: B Allen 41 from K Daniels 40.
Women's gross: A Witters 84.
Men's gross: W Brown 71.
Women's stableford: J Muir 40, D Webb 39, L Shepherd 39, J Utting 39, S Spence 38, K Shaw 37, Miggles Shanks 37, A Gemmell 37, S Johnstone 36.
Men's stableford, division 1: B Colbert 37, T Donovan 37, N Mackie 37, J Situ 36, G Morley 35, T Goldsmith 35, J Brown 34, D Twigley 34, B Morrissey 34, Z Rolls 34.
Division 2: T Green 39, J Kerekere 39, P Graham 39, C Simpson 38, C Taewa 38, H Johanson 36, A Hayward 36, D Mettrick 36, T Reynolds 35, R Foon 35.
Division 3: T Reeve 39, R Johnstone 38, S Harbottle 38, R Brott 36, M Parkes 36, M Allen 36, S Rolls 35, N Jones 35, B Pratt 35.
Twos: T Akroyd, C Dean, D Patumaka, T Sweeney, J Devery, D Boyle, R Wells, R Brott, S Harbottle.
SATURDAY — Men's stableford, division 1: J McGregor 40, B Talbot 39, V Richardson 39.
Division 2: M Stewart 38, P Goodwin 37, M Smith 35.
Twos: P Clayton, J McGregor.
Approach: T Donovan.
THURSDAY (Dec 10) — Men's stableford, division 1: A Kirkpatrick 36, F Ball 35, M Thomas 33, N Mackie 33, A White 33, D Bush 33.
Division 2: J Aitchison 40, W Thompson 38, R Fletcher 37, I Kirkpatrick 36.
Twos: M Thomas, H Williams.
Approach: P Clayton.
John Babbington-Welsh discovered his best form in over 1½ years in posting the round of the day at Te Puia Springs' Christmas tournament on Saturday.
JBW fired 83-24-59, including a quadruple-bogey on the eighth hole, to win the men's net. It was his lowest round since April of last year.
Tolaga Bay's Bruce Yates followed up success at Electrinet Park's Christmas tournament by winning the men's gross at the Springs' counterpart.
His three birdies were negated by a triple-bogey on the par-5 seventh hole but his 7-over 73 proved good enough.
Opotiki's Polly White won the women's gross with 85, while the other major honours went to locals Doreen Smith (women's net, 63), Iritana Ngarimu (women's stableford, 38 points) and James Forrester (men's stableford, 39pts, on countback from Ian Sykes).
SUNDAY — Te Puia Springs Christmas tournament, women's gross: P White 85.
Women's net: D Goldsmith 63.
Women's stableford: I Ngarimu 38.
Men's gross: B Yates 73.
Men's net: J Babbington-Welsh 59.
Men's stableford: J Forrester 39.
Stableford (men and women): I Sykes 39, R White 36, I Logan 36, E Wynyard 35, N Mackie 35, D Cook 35, P Summersby 34, N Truman 34, P Moana 34, C Beattie 34, H Schreiber 34, J Winiata 33, G Roberts 33, J Puha 33, J Lincoln 33, M Paerata 33, M Stock 33.
Women's approaches: D Goldsmith, K Reeves.
Men's approach: J Sheridan.
Twos: H Rasmussen, J Sheridan.
A SOLID round from Rob Taylor won him the men's stableford on Saturday with 76-6-70, for 38 points.
Ben Cameron's 40 points won the Tuesday vets' stableford last week and course convenor Ray Grace racked up 21 points to win the Thursday twilight's men's division on countback from Shayde Skudder, who had an eagle-3 in his 2-under 34 off the stick for the back nine.
Sunday — Men's net: P Wellard 72, R Taylor 72, G Hill 73.
Twos: R Taylor, R Moore, G Hill.
Saturday — Men's stableford: R Taylor 38, S Peneha 38.
Twos: R Taylor.
Thursday (Dec 10) — Twilight 9-hole stableford, men's division: R Grace 21, S Skudder 21.
Women's division: J McCafferty 17.
Non-golfers: D Pahina (men), T Montgomery (women).
Twos: S Skudder, T Akroyd.
Long drives: T Donovan (on 18), J Lewis (on 9).
Approaches: G Hill )on 7), A Reedy (on 14).
Tuesday (Dec 8) — Veteran men's stableford: B Cameron 40, B Lumsden-Nicholls 39, R McGann 35, A Nairne 35, P Hogan 34, E Parkin 33, S Peneha 32, S Mohlmann 31, P Simpson 31, A Reedy 31.
Twos: P Hogan, B Cameron.
COMING UP: THURSDAYS, twilight 9-hole golf, 3.30pm to 6pm tee-off; SUNDAY, AGM followed by play the course backwards.
BRIAN Tietjen won the men's net on Sunday with a little help from golf's ultimate shot — a hole-in-one.
An email from Patutahi Golf Club source said “Brian would like to say it was a 9 iron into the stiff southerly but in fact it was a low-hit driver that ran through the bunker and on to the green”.
Tietjen won with 87-21-66. More to come on this.
SUNDAY — Men's net: B Tietjen 87-21-66, J Blair 84-15-69, P Malloy 80-10-70,J Neilson 81-11-70.
Women's net: S Robertson 87-16-71.
Hole-in-one on 6: B Tietjen.
Eagle on 7: J Marsh.
FRIDAY — Meat pack 9-hole stableford, senior division: G Brown 22, B Wallace 21, J Blair 21, G Hawea 19, B Cameron 19.
Junior division: J Tietjen 23, M White 23, S Pittar 22, D Dodgshun 21, S Fookes 21.
TUESDAY (Dec 8) — Women's net: M Philip 96-30-66, M Winiata 96-28-68, K McLatchie 96-26-70.
COMING UP: SATURDAY, Hansen and Tomlinson Xmas Hams Tournament, two-tee 8am and 12 midday starts, men's and women's divisions, entry includes morning tea and meal, inquiries to George Brown 027 370 9869 or email
UMA Chambers sent “the Dolls” a warning in the stableford on Sunday.
Chambers won the stableford with 35 points and will be looking for more of the same in the Guys v Dolls clash on Saturday.
SUNDAY — Stableford: U Chambers 35, K Tamanui 35, P Milner 34, E Wynyard 31.
Twos: S Te Rito.
FRIDAY — 9-hole stableford: K Tamanui 14, U Chambers 13, P Milner 12.
COMING UP: SATURDAY, club shootout, Guys v Dolls, 2pm tee-off, prizegiving and shared meal to follow.
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