Eddie Brown jnr won the Bryan Johnson Memorial Cup for best overall net at the Pātutahi Men's Open on Saturday. Photo / Paul Rickard
Vance Richardson has won three of the four men’s handicap cup trophies on offer at Awapuni Links ... and he plans to keep it that way.
Richardson was “Steady Eddie” in the final of the Reynolds Cup top 8 final on Saturday and that proved far too good for Waiti Tamatea.
Giving Tamatea six shots, Richardson won 5 and 4 after leading 3-up at the turn.
Richardson got his name on the Reynolds Cup again, and has also won the Willock Cup second 8 and Low Bros third 8 in the past, but he’d prefer not to add the Lunken Cup bottom 8 to the list.
Dave Jenkins needed an extra hole to defeat Craig “Bondy” Morton in the Willock Cup final. Having to dish out shots on the last four holes, Jenkins hung tough and won with a par on the 19th.
Dave Pirimona played just one round to win the Low Bros Cup ... the qualifying round. All three of his subsequent matchplay opponents defaulted.
Mike Christophers beat brother Craig last month in what was the Lunken Cup “bottom 2″ as they were the only qualifiers in that section.
Jak Rowe has gone from golfing nadir to zenith over recent weeks.
On March 12, he staggered like a Waste Management Phoenix Open party hole spectator to 102.
Last Thursday, he produced a machine-like performance over his opening 13 holes before signing for a personal-best 77-11-66.
He claimed to have “lost the plot” as he bogeyed the last five holes, but his 42 points won the Division 1 men’s Stableford and was in the “Thursday School” money.
WEDNESDAY - LGU 2, 9-hole net: S. Gardner 34.
Putting: S. Jefferd 17, N. Johnson 17.
TUESDAY - Veterans’ Stableford: C. Poole 38, B. Morrissey 37, J. Jenner 36, V. Richardson 36, G. Marchbank 36.
Twos: R. Wells, T. Loomis, J. Jenner.
SUNDAY - Men’s Stableford, Division 1: B. Morgan 39, J. Willoughby 38, R. Gibson 37, D. Patumaka 36.
Division 2: N. Jones 39, L. Hunt 36, D. Pirimona 36, M. Karalus 35.
Twos: R. Gibson, J. Finch.
Nearest to pin: J. Finch.
SATURDAY - Men’s Stableford, Division 1: A. Abrahams 40, G. Brown 36.
Division 2: J. Williams 37, M. Gemmell 33.
Twos: G. Brown, D. Mettrick.
Nearest to pin: G. Brown.
THURSDAY (March 26) - Men’s Stableford, Division 1: J. Rowe 42, B. Anderson 41, G. Udall 40.
Division 2: C. Poole 36, D. Atkins 35, B. Read 35.
Twos: V. Richardson, B. Colbert, W. Mortleman, S. Jeune.
Nearest to pin: B. Colbert.
WEDNESDAY (March 25) - Taste One/First Light Frozen 27-hole Canadian foursomes women’s open, overall net (Saunders Salver): J. Muir/J. McCafferty 105; G. Young/Sally Spence 110; J.Steele/M. Lane 118; V. Bell/P. Dymock119; S. Maisey/K. Hay 121; P. Gayford/T. Lewis 121; M. Allen/F. Allen 122; M. Shanks/K. Shaw 127; T. Karaitiana/M. Vette 127.
9-hole net: S. McLaughlin/M. Johnson 35; J. Tietjen/J. Loffler 38; V. Meade/S. Gardner 39; P. Zame/L. Brown 43; J. Newman/R. Dymock 43 on c/b.
Approaches: M. Vette, P. Gayford, J. Steele, J. French.
Twos: M. Allen/F. Allen, K. Hay/S. Maisey.
Closest to line: P. Denigan.
Longest putt: G. Young.
Twilight 9-hole shootout final, overall winner: Glenn Middlemiss.
Order of elimination: Glen Hannah (No 1); Dave Smith (No 2); Waiti Tamatea (No 3); Lindsay Hunt (No 4); Jarden Nepia (No 5); Shannon Ratima (No 6); Kymani Tamatea (No 7); John Partington (No 8); Rua Ratima (No 9 in a chip-off).
COMING UP: TUESDAY, May 12, 8.30am-1.30pm, Tairāwhiti Secondary Schools Competition, boys and girls, 18 holes, 9 holes and 6-hole combined ambrose, clubs and balls provided if needed, lunch after prizegiving, entries close May 8.
A personal-best round by James Junior Forrester earned him a runaway victory in the Stableford on Sunday.
Forrester racked up 45 points in his 91-34-57, nine points clear of men’s runner-up Peter Ngarimu.
Aomihi Cook’s 35 points was the best of the women.
SUNDAY - Men’s Stableford: J. Jnr Forrester 91-34-57, 45; P. Ngarimu 36, J. Forrester 35.
Women’s Stableford: A. Cook 35, I. Ngarimu 33.
Twos: B. Clark.
Mike Christophers is a Lunken Cup champion twice in the space of four weeks.
Christophers, a dual member of Electrinet Park and Poverty Bay, beat brother Craig in the Lunken Cup men’s handicap matchplay final at Poverty Bay last month.
On Sunday, he combined with Emma Hayes to win the Lunken Challenge Cup mixed pairs at the Park.
Hayes and Christophers won the Canadian foursomes title with a net 70, three shots ahead of runners-up Raukura Chesley and Edward Pirini.
Gary Woodland earned NZ$3.1 million for winning the PGA Tour’s Houston Open this week. That’s a fair bit more than the Novus 9-hole twilight shootout winner will pocket late Thursday afternoon, but dollar signs are in the eyes of the 10 contenders.
Having qualified for the money round over the summer of 2025-26, the 10 will all let rip off the first tee and one by one will be culled until one potentially bloodied and battered gunslinger is left standing, smoke rising from the barrel of his Colt 45, the undertaker busy measuring up the last of his victims.
And just who will that Clint Eastwood be. As of Monday morning, one of these ... Bailey Matoe, Chris Fox, Craig Christophers, Anthony Pahina, John Collier jnr, Waiti Tamatea, Alex Nanai, Kymani Tamatea, Shaun Pahina, Stephen Rolls.
SUNDAY - Lunken Cup Canadian mixed foursomes net: E. Hayes/M. Christophers 70; C. Raukura/E. Pirini 73; C. Pipi/C. Fox 74; J. Rolls/S. Rolls 76; M. Vette/J. Witika 77; S. Maisey/P. Dagg 79; S. Hayes/L. Hayes 79; T. Aramakutu/C. Aramakutu 80; A. Tuari/D. Kahukoti 81; H. Miller/J. Hayes 81.
COMING UP: SUNDAY/MONDAY, Low Bros Cup team of four Stableford, combined handicap must be 24 or more.
A double bogey start put a rocket under Eddie Brown jnr as he collected a prestigious piece of silverware at the Kaitere Farms Pātutahi Men’s Open on Saturday.
Brown responded to his potentially disastrous start with four birdies over the following nine holes and went on to fire 2-over 72-4-68 to win the Bryan Johnson Memorial Cup for the best overall net.
It took a countback to decide it as Daniel Williams shot 79-11-68, but was no match for Brown’s back nine 3-under 32.
Major sponsor Pete Briant, having eased off the accelerator since his world jetsprinting title-winning days, won the Division 3 gross with 88.
The low round of the day was teenager Marcus Gray’s 68, which featured four birdies. Gray was off a +1 at the ’Tahi, so his net was 69.
Williams settled for the consolation of winning the Division 2 net.
The younger big-hitting Browns are usually the stars of the show. Not on Friday, as George Brown posted an even-par 35 to win Division 1 of the meat pack 9-hole Stableford with 23 points. Jason Devery’s five-birdie 33, for 21 points, was only good enough for second.
SUNDAY - Women’s net: K. Sarich 71, F. Tupara 72, C. Holland 74.
Division 1 men: S. Toa 67, S. Pohatu 72, D. Wilson 72, T. Hindmarsh 73, G. Brown 73.
Division 2 men: A. Gillies 70, A. Nimmo 72, B. Croskery 73, G. Holland 74.
Twos: S. Toa.
SATURDAY - Kaitere Farms Pātutahi Men’s Open, Bryan Johnson Memorial Cup for best overall net: E. Brown jnr 68 on c/b.
Division 1, gross: M. Gray 68, R. Hindmarsh 72, C. Palmer 73, T. Akroyd 74.
Net: P. Stewart 69, T. Hindmarsh 70, W. Brown 71, D. Pohatu 71.
Stableford: P. Hokianga 36, M. Christophers 36, R. Mottart 35, H. Harris 34.
Division 2, gross: K. Harrison-Allen 79, G. McLean 84, A. Hindmarsh 87, D. Waihaki 87.
Net: D. Williams 68, C. Parker 73, T. Sharp 73, P. Summersby 75.
Stableford: B. McKenzie 36, M. Smith 33, K. Dodgshun 32.
Division 3, gross: P. Briant 88.
Net: L. Jamieson 69, M. White 70.
Stableford: G. Holland 36, M. Murphy 34.
Approaches: E. Brown jnr, G. McLean, B. Croskery.
Long drives: P. Stewart, M. de Luze, L. Aupouri.
Twos: A. Zame, E. Brown jnr.
Eagle on 10: D. Pohatu.
FRIDAY - Meat pack 9-hole Stableford, Division 1: G. Brown 23, J. Devery 21, W. Brown 20, S. Toa 19, S. Pohatu 19.
Division 2: D. Quinn 22, I. Tietjen 21, K. Dodgshun 19, B. Williams 19.
COMING UP: SUNDAY, April 12, ER Black Cup interclub Canadian mixed foursomes, 11am tee-off (club day will be held on Saturday prior).
The course is baring its teeth and it’s not even winter yet.
A miserable 27 points was enough to get in the prizes in Sunday’s club Stableford.
The best of the bunch was Murray Yates’ 34 points on countback from Trent Higgs.
SUNDAY - Stableford: M. Yates 34, T. Higgs 34, P. Stevenson 30, J. Hale 27, P. Tuapawa 27.
Approach: M. Yates.
Twos: J. Hale, T. Higgs.