Despite blustery winds and rain-soaked fairways, Betland shot one-under-par 71 on his home course to win Sunday’s 18-hole stroke event, ahead of visitors Matt Egan (Cobar, 74) and Zac Mitchell (Condobolin, 75).

Betland handled the conditions better than any of the 180 starters in the $5000 tournament, thanks to his accuracy from the tee. Bogeys on the 7th, 8th and 18th holes were offset by birdies at the 6th, 9th, 11th and 12th.

Organisers offered visitors a bonus $500 if they could win Sunday’s individual stroke trophy, attracting A-grade (up to 12 handicap) contenders from Wellington, Parkes, Penrith, Grafton, Nelson Bay, Wagga Wagga and the Gold Coast, however locals dominated all the major events.

Ian Bown shot 84 to win B-grade (13-19) and Tim Mackay carded 92 to win the C-grade trophy.

Robyn Hammond was the best female golfer with 92 off the stick.

Saturday’s four-ball best-ball was equally popular, with Forbes pair Steve Betland and Daniel Bayley winning with two-under-par 70, on a countback from Forbes’ Ray Taylor and Gold Coast visitor Brian Hodge, and another composite pair, John Betland and Darryl McAuliffe (Nelson Bay).

FGA Classic committee chair Randal Grayson teamed up with Adrian Acheson to win the 4BBB men’s handicap with 51 stableford points, while Forbes pair Sharon Grierson and Fran Smith were the best in the ladies handicap event.

Grayson said organisers were thrilled with the interest in the 25th staging of the annual tournament.

“The general consensus was that everyone that was here thinks they’ll be coming back [next year] and will be bringing more people with them,” Grayson said.

“We had good feedback from everybody on the work [the FGA’s] doing on the greens and fairways and everybody could see how it will all come together pretty soon.

“If there was one thing that didn’t go that well, the weather was just a little bit against us,” he said.

“The weather was challenging - the wind was strong, but the good players seemed to get through it pretty well.”

The best scratch scores in Sunday’s 18-hole event were:

John Betland 71 (Forbes), Matt Egan 74 (Cobar),  Zac Mitchell 75 (Condobolin), Steve Betland 76 (Forbes), Mitch McGlashan 77 (Parkes), Allan Jewell 77 (Parkes), Shane Sallaway 77 (Forbes), Mark Collits 77 (Forbes), Joe Ryan 78 (Wellington), Damian Noll 78 (Condobolin), Danny Acret 78 (Penrith), Denis Day 78 (Penrith), Peter McDade 78 (Grafton), Darryl McAuliffe 79 (Nelson Bay), Paul Burns 79 (Wagga), Brian Hodge 79 (Gold Coast), Robert Hay 79 (Parkes).

See Thursday’s Advocate for more golf news.