Carterton golfers honour Brunton

Perhaps the most significant event at Carterton over the long weekend was the presentation made to Tony Brunton to mark 25 years of service on the greens staff of the club, many of those years as green keeper.
Many of the people with whom Tony has been associated over the years were present for the occasion and many who were unable to be present sent letters of congratulation.
Members also spoke of their times spent in Tony's company and Life Member Grant Smith's contribution in this regard was a notable one.
About 80 members were present for the occasion.
The choice of the day of the "bucket" tournament to make the presentation to Tony was an inspired one as this tournament has always been one of Tony's special events.
Tony was presented with a new Taylormade R7 driver with which he will, no doubt, create varying degrees of terror on the Australian golf courses while he is there on holiday!
A good field was attracted to play in the annual "bucket" tournament on Saturday, October 23.
The holes for this event are cut literally "as big as a bucket" - about the size of the average beach bucket - which does, of course, make for some very high scores.
And, of course, the size of the holes is not in accordance with the rules of golf and so the event is regarded as a "novelty" event, not counting for handicap purposes.
For this reason Jamie McIsaac, professional at the Masterton Golf Club, was invited to participate and showed his class by scoring a gross 61 on his way to winning the low handicap group with 48 stableford points. In that group Mike Newport was second with 46, Peter Thompson third with 45 and both Chris Ranish and Barry Bentley returned 43 points.
The mid-range handicap group was won by Dean Schaef, also with 48 points. Harry Langham scored 47, Craig Wilson and Pat Finn, 44, while David Ross, George Rink and H Ackerman all scored 43.
Steve Willis headed the high handicap group with his score of 45 points. Both Jim Juno and Dallas Dennis scored 44 while R Fryer was on his own on 43.
The ladies lower handicap group was headed by Bridget Price with 44 points. Both Val Edwards and Jeanne Taylor scored 43, while Roselee Thurston and Bernice Parker each scored 42.
The higher handicap ladies group was headed by Alison Murrell who scored 46 points but only headed off Caral Rink on countback. Val Willis was third with 41 while three players - Beth Gordon, Leslie Sadler and Karen Hearfield - all scored 39.
Nearest the pin prizes were won by Peter Thompson, Ray Parkinson, Dean Schaef and Bridget Price.
Only a very small field played in the stroke round on Sunday, October 24, but Mike Newport's nett 69 won the day.
Both Jeanne Taylor and Lyn Evans scored holes in two.
A reasonable field played in the mini tournament on Labour Monday with the best stableford score of the day being recorded by John Lett, winning the men's group 2 in the process.
In that group Peter Mallitte, on 39, was second, Bill Dickson, on 36, third and Russ Sadler, on 35, fourth.
The group 1 men were headed by Aidan Konise with 37 points from both Lyn Evans and David Sadler on 36. Four players - Chris Ranish, Mike Newport, Lance Sayer and T Bull - all scored 35.
The women's group was led home by Corrie van Zanten with 38 points, just one point clear of Jeanne Taylor in second place. Val Willis was one further point adrift in third slot.
Holes in two were achieved by Aidan Konise, Daniel Schmid, Jeanne Taylor and Roselee Thurston.
Unfortunately I do not have the full results of the stoke round played by the veterans group on Tuesday, October 26, but I can report that Mike Newport continued on his winning way Next Tuesday the Linton Camp golfers will be visiting Carterton on their annual visit and on Thursday the Carterton veterans will make their annual pilgrimage to Te Marua to try to retain the Challenge Trophy presently held by Carterton.
The mid-week women played a Midweek Cup and Amy Goodin Salver medal round on Wednesday, October 20.Sue Ross scored the day's best nett with 68, winning the bronze division. Second in that division was Colleen Southey, with 71, with Marion Matheson in third place with 73. Both Alison Bodle and Beth Gordon scored 74. The silver division was won by Barbara Birchall with 72 nett from Corrie van Zanten, on 74.