On another perfect winter’s day with preferred lies in the General Area, our Senior Teams Challenge side had a fantastic 5.5/0.5 win at Wantima yesterday. It was the first time in my ten years of STC golf that we went through a day undefeated. In particular, our singles players produced another masterclass performance away from home.

Here are the individual match summaries:

1. Peter Lansom, who is relishing playing in the number one position (even though he denies this observation), had a rematch of his first round loss to Rob Perrin. Peter played solid golf early to take a three up lead.  Around the turn Perrin came back with a couple of birdies but this time Peter was strong enough to hang on for a 2/1 win.  The highlight of the match was on the second hole. Peter’s second shot hit a tree and the ball could not be found.  So he reloaded and then sank a 15 footer for a bogey which was good enough for a half! Well done Peter

2. The rather casual Ian Burgess, who only just made his tee time, was up against Klane Tomlins. Ian realised early that he had a battle on his hands and so he knuckled down for the battle which he eventually won one up on the last hole.

3. Peter Hargreaves’ opponent, Ian Boughy, didn’t know the challenge he faced when standing on the first tee, or even after five holes – Peter has been in blistering form of late. The match was all tied up as they stood on the sixth tee when Peter decided to put his foot down. He birdied six, seven and nine to be four up at the turn. Apart from losing the 11th to a birdie he won most of the next holes to close out the match for a convincing 6/4 win. What a player!

4. Clint Auty is another player who is starting to put in some great results. This time he was up against Jason Patterson, who received five strokes in this, the first of the handicap matches. Clint came out firing from the gun and was five up after seven holes! Patterson, using his handicap shots well with strokes on 8, 10, 12 and 16, then started to reel Clint in. The pivotal hole turned out to be the 6th (15th hole played). Clint knocked his second shot into the water but was good enough to get up and down to halve the hole and then held on for a 3/1 win. Very solid win Clint

5.  The first 4bbb match had Andrew Mullis and Richard Garnham up against Mal Logan and Ron Watson.  This turned out to be a super battle of nerves with very little in the match right the way through. With a few holes to go Andrew and Richard (who had to give away three and four handicap shots), held a slender one up lead. They hung on to win by that margin on the 18th hole for an important win

6. The final 4bbb match paired Geoff Crozier and Rob Brown against Wantima team captain Baiden Eland and Jim Barber with Croz and Browny to receive a two shots handicap for the match.  Croz came out of the blocks firing on all cylinders with a great chip in birdie on the first hole and followed that up with another birdie on the 15th (sixth hole played). The BGC boys were cruising at four up after eight holes.  Then the Wantima pair decided to play golf. A par won them the ninth, gimme birdie win on 10, another birdie win on 11, birdie halved 12 because BGC got a shot, holed sand shot for birdie on 14 for a win, 40 feet birdie putt for win on the long and difficult 15th, and Wantima were one up with three to play. They held that lead until the 18th when Browny decided to ‘step up’ and knock his five wood second shot into the hole for an eagle to halve the match.  So, an amazing seven birdies and an eagle for the match, with Croz playing beautiful golf which would have netted him 40 points in a stableford competition.

Pinkie captain picking his eagle ball out of the hole on 18th!