Simmons and Venables our golf victors

The Forbes golfers could not believe their luck when they ventured onto the course in near sublime weather conditions. This led them to excel in their performances overall and make for a very happy weekend. Play on Saturday was the Annual ‘Callaghan Shield’. This is a 4BBB Stableford Aggregate Medley, sponsored by Todd Callaghan Painting. In this format each player’s stableford score is counted and then combined for each pair. The 65 players topped the efforts of the field from last year with better scores in both winner and ball sweep categories. The winners were the pair of Ann Simmons and Colleen Venables, who amassed a score of 78 points. It was a classic case of partners combining well both in the hole-by-hole accumulation but also in the front-9/back-9 support. As expected, both players scored well with Ann (38) and Colleen (40) happy with their games. They were helped along by Ann’s three 4-pointers and Colleen’s eight 3-pointers. Runners-up were the pairing of Jeff House and Matt Walton. Their 77 points just missed the ‘winner’s boat’ with the possible culprit being a ‘miss’ by Jeff on the 17th, but of course there is never any blame. They did both score 4-pointers with Matt grabbing a birdie on the 17th and Jeff snaring one on the 7th. The winner of the Individual Comp was Matt Walton with a handsome 40 points. Despite being a gentleman he did not step aside and allow Colleen Venables, who also scored 40 points, to take the honours. They both had good back-9’s but Matt snuck in by a ‘smidge’ on count back. The ball sweep went to 68 points: 74 – Cripps/S Grierson; 70 – S French/T Callaghan; 69 - S Kirkman/T Griffiths, W&J Judge, P Dawson/T Callaghan; 68 – C Byrnes/P Tisdell. The lone visitor was Tony Evill (Canowindra) who paired with Steve Rogers but lost the KENO to Niel Duncan and Pete Grayson. The Super Pin was won by Jenny Fletcher with an impressive shot to 265 cm. And Jenny did convert for a ‘2’. Jenny ousted some good earlier shots but the ‘guns’ following behind could not get within cooee of shot. The NTP’s went to: 9th Ladies – S Grierson, Men – P Grayson; 18th Ladies - A Simmons, Men - D Bernardi. Both of the 18th hole sharp shooters managed 2’s but the 9th players could not convert. There were nine 2’s all day with the 18th yielding the most and the 1st producing a fine effort by Luke Flakelar. Not all the 2’s helped the pairings scores. As the sponsor, Todd wanted to carry on the ‘Callaghan Legacy’ by being among the winners but unfortunately he was let down by his playing partner/s and could only manage a ball in the ball sweep. A winning score is reliant on both players accumulating points continuously. Having a ‘miss’ may be overcome but having multiple misses and being coupled to way too many 1-pointers will put a pairing into the ‘Encouragement Award’ bracket. Just ask Laurie O’Connor or Dave Mylecharane how that feels. There were no double-digit scores on individual holes which brought smiles to the faces. But there were a number of 9’s scored which mainly occurred on the ‘evil’ holes, the 7th and 15th. Interestingly, if you are so inclined in this manner, there was a seemingly excessive number of 8’s scored across the board. The worst case was an ‘8’ on the 6th hole which was immediately followed by another on the 7th hole. Needless to say these scores resulted in no points and further burdened the shoulders of Alf Davies, for which Terry Sharpe was most apologetic. Two other pairings had a similar fate on those holes but the players had higher handicaps which at least earned them a point or two. There were no ‘eagles’ registered this week. Over the past few weeks there has been a consistent record of ‘eagle shouts’ across the course, but alas not this week. There were a couple of swingers across the field as ‘other duties’ took expected partners out of play. These had a mixture of results. Todd Callaghan was stretched between Peter Dawson and Stuart French but managed to pick up a ball in the sweep in each pair. Fons Melisi was torn between Bruce Carpenter and Tony Cogswell which ultimately hampered the performance of each pair. Three of the four ladies-pairings did well, while 50 per cent of the medley pairings did well. Does this mean that a medley pairing will only have a 50% chance of success? Maybe not. On Sunday the pleasant weather continued which encouraged players to participate in the Sunday Stableford Medley. Although it was a small field the quality was high. A tie for the highest points (36) was settled by count back with Harry Callaghan getting the nod over Brad Ashton. The NTP’s and ball sweep went astray. Here is the news: The Summer Sixes for 2025-26 has commenced with some teams getting off to a cracker start. A handful of teams scored below 100 but there were also no monster scores, indicating that the players are keen to compete. It is early days yet so no analysis can be made but the start is promising for the season. H/Pro Will is commencing another junior coaching series today, Thursday 30 Oct. If you have a child interested please contact the Pro Shop to find out more and hopefully get a spot in the group. The Mixed Foursomes Championships, played over 27 hole, will be held on Sunday 2 November. Hopefully you have your partner organised and energised and will have good fun even if you miss out on the trophy. The 2025 Forbes Nissan Classic will be played on Sunday 9 November, with a 4BBB Stableford on Saturday 8 November. The Saturday event has ladies and mens trophies but is not a Medley. It may not be too late to get your name on the time sheet so contact the Pro Shop asap. Saturday night is a great chance to greet old faces and enjoy a hearty tale, and maybe even get lucky on the Calcutta. The Molong GC Open for ladies and men was held on Sunday 26 October with a few players from Forbes attending. Results are yet to come to hand. It is crystal ball time: This weekend the men's comp is the November Monthly Medal, sponsored by Jelbarts Tyrepower. On Sunday there is the Mixed Foursomes Championships played over 27 holes. The course will be closed until the afternoon. VETS GOLF One of the first into the clubhouse and leading the field Forbes' Kim Herbert had to wait until the final group was in before being declared the winner of last week's twin-towns veterans golf competition played on his home course. With only 27 starters organisers decided there would be only one grade and a fidgety Herbert (seven handicap) - despite only scoring 14 points on the first nine - took the honours with 35 thanks to his second nine 21 points. Runner-up a point behind was Peter Grayson of Forbes, while Steve Edwards completed the trophy haul by the locals bagging the encouragement award. Parkes players were to the fore on the nearest-to-pins with Lex Hodges closest on the ninth hole and the consistent Nym Dziuba successful on the 18th. It didn't take long for the locals to bounce back in the twin-towns shield scoring 198 points to Parkes' 187. The ball sweep went to 32 points with the winners as follows: 33 points - Rob Staples (P) and Warwick Judge (F); 32 - Dale Stait and Lindsay Elliott (P), Frank Hanns, Ken Sanderson and Neil Herbert (F). Players are reminded that their $15 memberships are due. Twin towns vets play in Parkes this week with noms from 9am for a 9.30am shotgun start. The weather is excellent and the course equally. Be there to conquer it. Looking ahead to November, the monthly Lachlan Valley competition will be played on the 13th at West Wyalong. As mentioned last week the twin towns Christmas Party in Forbes on Thursday December 4. Two weeks later a 2-ball Ambrose will be played in Forbes on Thursday 18. Get organised now with a player in form with hams going to the winners. The BG scribe reports 12 starters last Tuesday for 12 holes with Ted Morgan wasting no time best with 29 points. But only just as Neil Herbert was only one point behind after being beaten on a count-back last week as winner. Also nearing a win are Ken Sanderson and Barry Shine next best with 24 points. If wanting to play any Tuesday be at the club by 9am, no later. Very social with a coffee meet after for many.

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