Good Crowd For Opening Day

Club Champion Jock Agnew

The Penola Golf club officially opened the 2013 winter season with a two ball ambrose competition last Saturday. The day began with the traditional first ball of the season hit by Club Champion, Jock Agnew. With the pressure of 40 plus watching him, Agnew didn’t falter and nailed one straight down the middle. 

Both men and women, members and non-members joined took part in the Open Day competition sponsored by Majella, which saw a great total of 39 players taking part. Despite the odd shower and a coolish breeze, there were some hot scores in both the men’s and mixed competition.

In the men’s competition, Steven Skeer and Fred Clayfield had a great round scoring 75 off the stick for nett 63½. The pair managed to par every hole on the back nine, helping them edge out the opposition. 

The runner’s up were George Kidman and Nathan Williams, who had an impressive 69 off the stick for nett 64¾. 

In third place was Jock Agnew and David Marcus with a competitive score of 65½. Finishing fourth was Shane Anderson and Tony Gleeson, who finished with three threes to put themselves in contention. 

In the mixed competition, Steven Hill and Janice Coote topped the scoresheets with nett 63¾. Good consistent golf all day and birdies on the 3rd and 17th was the key to their win, and taking home the Majella prizes on offer.

Runner’s up were Peter Walker and Helen Ferguson, who were only 1½ shots behind with their score of 65¼. 

Don and Marg Ferguson finished third with 67 ¼, largely due to Marg, who carried Don for most of the final nine, including personal birdies on the 1st and 3rd and draining a 20 footer on the 9th.  

Paul Harmer and Claire Mossop just edged out Andrew and Katrina Hutchesson on count back for fourth, after each had nett 68. 

Ant Mathys and John Wilkinson combined forces again but didn’t take home any prizes, despite trying to play off a different handicap. When asked by their playing partners what their handicap was, Ant looked at the card and confidently replied, “Sixteen and a third.” 

When questioned on the legitimacy of this, Ant looked at the card again and replied, “No wait, that’s the date!”

However not to be outdone, story of the week goes to his partner, Johnny Wilkinson, who has been dining out on the fact he got a hole in one two weeks ago. Playing on a Tuesday afternoon, Wilkinson teed off the 13th and didn’t quite get it out of the middle. The ball squirted hard left, ricocheted off a strainer post across the fairway,  onto the 12th green and into the cup! Not quite a perfect ace, but good effort.

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