REEDY DOES IT AGAIN

REIGNING CHAMPION: Defending Open champion Anaru Reedy carded 1-over par with 70 on the first 18 and then 75 on the next 18 winning the Scott Plate as top qualifier. Picture by Paul Rickard

Come and get it.

That was the unspoken message from reigning champion Anaru Reedy as the second Emerre & Hathaway Poverty Bay Open for the year got under way in unseasonably challenging conditions on the Awapuni Links course yesterday.

Reedy is the only man in the 111-strong field who could achieve a feat that might never be done, or even be possible, again — winning the Keiha Cup as Open champion twice in the same year.

Covid-19 put paid to the Open last year. It was postponed to March 2022, and Electrinet Park member Reedy claimed the title.

The bid for two in a row got off to a successful start for the 51-year-old as the bulk of the field battled their way through 36 holes of strokeplay qualifying, particularly in the afternoon as the south-easterly kicked in good and proper.

Reedy carded 1-over-par 145 with rounds of 70, 75 on an immaculately presented Bay course to win the Scott Plate as top qualifier.

The 70 was highlighted by a chip-in for eagle on the par-5 first hole (his 10th as he started on the 10th), but he stumbled at the end of his afternoon round, dropping four shots in the last four holes.

Still, it was good enough to finish one shot clear of Te Puke's Craig Van Der Nagel (72, 74), who top-qualified the only other time he has played in the Open 21 years ago.

There was a six-shot gap back to third-placed William Brown (76, 76) — Poverty Bay's head greenkeeper — on countback from clubmate and fellow two-time PB Open winner Peter Kerekere (76, 76).

Another Open two-time champion, Te Puia Springs' Andrew Higham, bounced back from a morning 80 with a birdie-riddled 73 — five in all — to qualify fifth.

Simon Jeune, the champion in 2019, was sixth on 154 (75, 79), two strokes ahead of Poverty Bay clubmate Glenn Morley (77, 79).

Seven-time Open winner Waka Donnelly (Napier) staggered to 84 in the morning but shrugged off that setback with 75 in the afternoon to qualify eighth.

Among those to make the top 16 were 71-year-old Open stalwart Tim Mackie (Waipukurau) and Bruce Wilson (Taupo), who is a week off turning 68.

Mackie would have preferred to have had one shot worse than his 164 (83, 81) and top-qualified for the second 16, which is played off handicap.

Instead he faced the Herculean task of Reedy in the first round of matchplay this morning.

Wilson, who won the Open in 2013, qualified 10th on 160 (78, 82).

The top 16 features players from 12 different clubs, ranging from Whitford Park in Auckland to Waikanae on the Kapiti Coast.

The best net total of the day was posted by Poverty Bay's Reid Fletcher — 143 (68, 75) off a 30-handicap. It could have been substantially lower than that had he not had a 13 on the par-4 16th in the afternoon.

That he was one of only four players to play to handicap or better over the two rounds reflected the field's struggles, reflected by the statistic of 43 scores of 100 or more.

And there was one physical casualty.

Former Poverty Bay member Manav Garewal, now a member of Hastings, copped a golf ball to the forehead from a full-blooded shank from one of his playing four — a doctor.

Matchplay in seven divisions started this morning. Semifinals and finals are tomorrow.