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PatutahiSONNY would have been impressed.
Patutahi life member and Waikohu stalwart Sonny Rutene, who passed away peacefully at home among his whanau on Saturday, would have nodded his approval, even raised an eyebrow at the scores posted at the Hansen and Tomlinson Patutahi Christmas Hams Tournament.
Fittingly the best of the day came from a member of ’Tahi at which Maori All Black Sonny was club captain for many seasons.
Chris Beattie was in sensational form, starting and finishing with birdies in his 70-12-58, which won the 0-17 men’s overall net.
Not far behind was clubmate Tony Coutts who won the 18+ men’s overall net with 82-21-61.
Waikohu’s Margaret Tuapawa contributed to the blitz in winning the women’s overall net with 103-40-63.
Tony Akroyd, playing in the same group as Beattie, probably wasn’t thinking 65 after three-putting the first hole for a bogey-6.
He responded with eight birdies, five of those in a homeward nine of 4-under 31 for a 5-under 65 — two shots off his course record.
The list of excellence continued — Matt Stock’s 76-14-62 to win the intermediate men’s gross; Eddie Brown junior’s 2-under 68 including six birdies; Rios Moleta’s 83-21-62, which could have been substantially lower but for a nine on the fifth hole; Tom Hindmarsh’s 76-13-63; Tony Cave’s 80-17-63; Jan Ewart’s 83-19-64; and Mahia member Colleen Wesche’s 92-28-64.
Sonny, in his prime, would no doubt have been in the prizes.
The golfing community extends its deepest condolences to the family of Sonny Rutene. A full obituary is to follow in The Herald.
SUNDAY — Men’s par: T Green 77-14-63, +7; B Pohatu 89-24-65, +4; W Baty 81-13-68, +3.
Women’s par: C Wesche 93-29-64, +8; H Humble 97-32-65, +6.
SATURDAY — Hansen and Tomlinson Patutahi Christmas Hams Tournament, women’s overall net: M Tuapawa 103-40-63.
Overall men’s net, 0-17: C Beattie 70-12-58.
18+: T Coutts 82-21-61.
Senior men’s division, gross: T Akroyd 65.
Net: E Brown jr 68-6-62.
Stableford: J Priestley 74-10-64, 42; J Devery 71-7-64, 42; B Wallace 78-13-65, 41; H Brown 70-3-67, 39; D Russell 75-8-67, 39; G Hill 75-8-67, 39; Tere Lincoln 75-7-68, 38.
Intermediate men, gross: M Stock 76.
Net: T Hindmarsh 76-13-63.
Stableford: T Cave 81-18-63, 43; T Green 78-14-64, 42; P Johnston 82-18-64, 42; W Baty 77-13-64, 42; Z Rolls 80-15-65, 41; B Talbot 82-16-66, 40; B McKenzie 82-16-66, 40; C Parker 79-13-66, 40.
Junior men, gross; R Moleta 83.
Net: D Maloy 86-23-63.
Stableford: D Skudder 89-24-65, 41; D Humphrey 87-22-65, 41; M de Luze 86-21-65, 41; J Graham 89-23-66, 40; B Pohatu 91-24-67, 39; H Harris 86-19-67, 39; D Quinn 95-28-67, 39.
Women, gross: J Kerr 79.
Net: J Ewart 83-19-64.
Stableford: C Wesche 94-30-64, 43; S Mestrom 82-16-66, 40; H Humble 98-32-66, 41; S Robertson 85-18-67, 40; E Wynyard 85-17-68, 39; I Ngarimu 95-27-68, 39; H Pomana 86-18-68, 39; M Marino 91-22-69, 38.
FRIDAY — Meat pack nine-hole stableford, senior division: C Beattie 23, E Brown jr 23, C Parker 21, H Pomana 21, D Russell 20.
Junior division: G Maude 26, A Hindmarsh 23, C Brown 23, D Maloy 22, L Jamieson 21.
Poverty BayTHE round of the tournament; the round of her golf career so far.
Sharon Bramwell was a shining light at the First Light Frozen/Taste One Christmas Hams open tournament on Sunday.
Not only was her 90-25-65, for 45 points, a personal best, it won the women’s overall stableford and was the highest stableford round in a large field.
Bramwell mixed nines of 46-44, her efforts highlighted by a birdie-3 on the 13th hole.
Seventy-five-year-old Brian Morrissey was the best of the men. He was just two shots over his age in a round of 77-10-67, for 41 points, which won him the overall men’s stableford.
Others in the 40s points-wise were Greg Hawea, recently-crowned Poverty Bay women’s shootout champion Teresa Lewis, Bruce Talbot and Anthony Pahina.
Lee “Pikey” Hewson clearly has a new tactic when it comes to his golf. Miss the ball with your first shot of the day, then go on to play well. For the second consecutive week, Pikey had an air-shot off the opening tee, in this case the eighth as it was a shotgun start for the Hams tourney, and went on to have 39 points. Word is Pikey very nearly parred the eighth after his swish.
Best gross of the day was posted by Pete Anderson, 3-over 75.
Murray Smith was once “a bit of a chopper”. Not any more. The retired doctor’s game has improved significantly and it reached a personal high last Thursday with a division 2 men’s stableford-winning 85-23-62, for 46 points.
Not far behind that performance was an excellent gross round by Thomas Donovan, who won division 1 with 72-7-65, for 43 points.
SUNDAY — First light Frozen/Taste One Christmas Hams tournament, overall gross: P Anderson 75.
Overall stableford, women: S Bramwell 45.
Overall stableford, men: Brian Morrissey 41 from G Hawea 40 on c/b.
Women’s stableford: T Lewis 40, S Mestrom 39, V Bell 39, K Reeve 38, V Fletcher 38, L Steel 38, J MacKinnon 37, M Colebourne 35, E Ball 35, R Taewa 34.
Men’s stableford, division 1: T Goldsmith 39, G Burnside 39, T Donovan 38, J Walker 37, R Gibson 37, P Stewart 37, H Douglas 37, A White 36, N Mackie 36, S Andreassen 36,
Division 2: B Talbot 40, A Pahina 40, G McKinnon 39, P Rickard 38, Z Rolls 38, W Donnelly 38, D Wright 37, M Cousins 36, G Brown 36, D Patumaka 36 on c/b.
Division 3: L Gunther 39, R Fletcher 39, L Hewson 39, J Aitchison 39, L Pollitt 38, M Karalus 38, P Goodwin 38, J Pittar 36, A Nimmo 36 on c/b
Twos: N Richardson, T Donovan, V Fletcher, P Anderson, B Morrissey, B Morgan, B Colbert.
SATURDAY — Men’s stableford, division 1: V Richardson 42, D Griffin 41.
Division 2: M Smith 38, W Thompson 36.
Twos: D Griffin, J McGregor.
Approach: D Griffin.
THURSDAY (Dec 13) — Men’s stableford, division 1: T Donovan 43, P Butler 42, V Richardson 41, C Dean 40.
Division 2: M Smith 46, D Mettrick 39, G Eriksen 38, J Pittar 37.
Approach: C Poole.
Twos: N Mackie 2, T Sherratt.
Jackpot: N. Mackie.
Gisborne ParkLIL McFlinn last broke 90 on December 3 of 2017.
Last week she went as close as she could to the clouds bursting over that drought.
McFlinn won the women’s net-minus-stableford with 90 off the stick. It gave her a net of 63 and stableford points of 43 points for a total of 17. Next best was Francie Hutton, a distant 13 points back.
Allan Nairne followed up his Tuesday veteran men’s stableford-winning 41 points last week with a 39-point haul on Saturday, good enough to make it another competition win.
The only score between 3 and 10 missing from Penny Shaw’s card on Sunday was a nine. The high numbers did not stop her from winning the women’s stableford with 108-40-68, for 43 points, with Ann Richardson runner-up on 40.
A bunch of bogeys set up Ray Grace for 86-18-68, for 40 points, and the men’s stableford honours.
Electrinet Park, SUNDAY — Men’s stableford: R Grace 40.
Women’s stableford: P Shaw 43, A Richardson 40.
SATURDAY — Men’s stableford: A Nairne 39.
WEDNESDAY (Dec 12) — Women’s net-minus-stableford: L McFlinn 63-46-17, F Hutton 70-40-30.
TUESDAY (Dec 11) — Veteran men’s stableford: A Nairne 41, P Simpson 41, C Aramakutu 40, E Morley 39, B Cameron 39, C Brown 38, E Parkin 38, A Lewington 38, R McGann 36, W Donnelly 35.
Twos: A Lewington, B Cameron, A Nairne, P Mitchell, E Morley.
COMING UP: SUNDAY, AGM, followed by course backwards competition.
Tolaga BayTOLAGA Bay Golf Club is in mourning after the death of Joe Crawford.
“Joe Crow”, as many called him, was a long-time member and personality at the club, and among those to pay tribute to him was clubmate Dion “Coastie” Milner.
“I will never forget the day we were in the same group that you had your home in one on number 6 . . . the hardest par 3 on the golf course,” Milner wrote on his Facebook page. “#Legend. #Always remembered.”
In a Gisborne Herald story on Joe’s famous shot, club captain Selwyn Ruru reckoned the “yahooing” could be heard at the New Zealand Open in Auckland” and that his ball “went so high and wide it paid its respects at the cemetery before the sea breeze blew it back, the ball landing on the green, hitting an approach flag and veering off into the cup”.
Joe himself said he “couldn’t believe it” and described it as “the best thing that’s ever happened to me”.
Condolences to the whanau of Joe.
SUNDAY — Stableford: Taine Lincoln 41, C O’Sullivan 41, J Lincoln 40.
Twos: Taine Lincoln.
WaikohuWAIKOHU ended its year with a par-3 threesomes competition on Sunday.
Valerie Grace, Kahu Tamanui and Percy Milner shot 28 to win by two shots.
The Guys versus Dolls clash was decided by chip-off . . . the Guys won.
SUNDAY — Par-3 threesomes: V Grace/K Tamanui/P Milner 28; M Tuapawa/I Ruru/H Vinivini 30; A Tamanui-Nunn/C O’Brien/E Wynyard 30.
Guys v Dolls chip-off winners: Guys.
Club champions for 2018 — Senior men: William Brown from Zane Rangihika.
Intermediate men: DJ Baty from Larry Green.
Junior men: Uma Chambers from Kahu Tamanui.
Senior women: Ella Wynyard.
Intermediate women: Valerie Grace.
Junior women: Audrey Tamanui-Nunn.
Coates Trophy winner: Valerie Grace.
McLean Trophy winner: DJ Baty.
Terry Rutene Cup: Kahu Tamanui.