Strong competition for golf prizes

MEN'S GOLF By SHORT PUTT Most of the Forbes golfers trusted the weather forecasters and got onto the course early on Saturday endeavouring to beat the weather. Most succeeded but the thunderstorms and lightning arrived a bit earlier than expected catching a few groups on the course. The golf competition was an Individual Stableford, sponsored by Woolworths Forbes who provided a ham for each of the division winners. The 58 players in the field were very keen to add to the Christmas dinner table. Unfortunately while most players could cope with the torrential downpour it was the lightning that sent eight players to seek shelter in the ‘Golfie’. A further five players returned to the course during a break and completed their rounds in style. The Div-1 presented a clear winner when Dave Mylecharane carded 40 points. He was very thrilled with his game and especially with his driver. After a week or more of trialling shaft combinations, with H/Pro Will’s inputs, he hit the magical combination. He was happy with his front-9 although a double-bogey on the 1st hole did not delight him. But his back-9 was quite joyful with only one 1-point hole. The Div-1 runner-up was Anthony Alley with 38 points. This was a better round than those he had played over recent weeks. He matched Dave with 21 points on the back-9 but had a few 1-pointers on the front-9 that dented his campaign for a prize. The Div-2 needed a count back to decide the winner from four players who finished on 34 points. Ultimately it was Matt Duff who won the prize helped by the better back-9 score. His 18 points was handicap-equalling but did include a ‘wipe’ on the 10th hole. The eventual Div-2 runner-up was Alex Mackinnon. He had an even game with 17 points on each. His malaise arose from the two ‘wipes’ on the front-9 and two again on the back-9. He did finish strongly with nine points on the last three holes. Those to miss out were Stevie G and Brett Slack-Smith. Each had an ‘if only’ story that explained how they lost the prize but put quite simply – they missed out. The ball sweep went to 31 points on count back, going to: 38 – C McMillan; 37 – K Tyne; 35 – F Melisi, J House, W Powter; 34 – S Grallelis, B Slack-Smith; 33 – L Alley, J Cutler, J Page, L O’Connor; 32 – W O’Niell, J Anderson, A Ruperto; 31 – D Earl. There were two visitors – Wayne Powter and Rob Hey (both Parkes). Rob was not having the best of days but gamely returned to the course to help Wayne complete his card. The NTP’s went to: 9th – Andrew Dukes; 18th – Laurie O’Connor of whom only Andrew converted for 3-points. There were only four 2’s scored overall. Alf Davies grabbed one on the 3rd hole while both Jeff House and Stevie G scored 2’s on the final hole, but the KENO was done and dusted by then. The super-pin was won by Paul Kay who was well pleased to finish ‘on the dancing floor’. He was in tough company where his 2-pointers were average compared to the 3-pointers by his playing partners. While his shot finished 440 cm away it was better than anybody else on the day. However, he was unable to convert for a ‘2’. Undoubtedly the main topic of conversation was the heavy rain and how silly golfers were to play in it. But adventure never won a feint heart – or whatever story can be made from that. Enterprising does describe some of the golfers. Archie Quirk and Shane Sallaway were playing the 15th when the storm hit. They marked their balls, I might add they were among the trees, then scooted to the ‘Golfie’ for shelter. When the weather cleared they shot back out to continue their round while the other pair in their group stayed behind. Archie and Shane managed one more hole before the weather broke again and that was it. The group of House, Grallelis, Uphill and Hayes were not to be outdone. On the 16th tee they called a postponement due to lightning then when it cleared they returned to the course and completed their round. Foremost in their minds was the honour of the KENO ticket. Stevie G’s putt for par on the 16th stopped only millimetres short. This meant a squared hole and ultimately a loss of the ham for him. Unfortunately, the 2’s Steve and partner Jeff each scored on the 18th could not salvage the KENO. Another to do well despite the conditions was Laurie O’Connor. He was the only player to score par on each of the four par-3 holes and he grabbed an NTP with that. However, he did have a challenge on the 15th. He was observed playing a shot from among the trees on the left having only just cleared the water. But he walked away with two points. Add to the group of good play that of Stuart Hayes. On his front-9 he only had to show the putter where the hole was and his ball raced into the cup. These good putts led to birdies on the 2nd and 5th and par saves on the 1st and 9th. His back-9 started well with more good putts but once the rain came his game became soggy. One group thought they had out-witted mother nature. Shayne Staines, Pete Cowhan and Trevor Williams were quite pleased to arrive on the 18th green all dry and only needing to putt out. But as they took aim the skies open and torrential rain swamped them, their balls and the green. Here is the news: On Sunday Head Pro Will took a Lachlan Valley Juniors team to Duntryleague to participate in the ‘Encourage Shield’. This is an Inter-District Handicap Matchplay teams event run by Golf NSW. The Lachlan team comprised three players from Forbes and three from Trundle. They were pitted against a team from Parkes. At the conclusion of their 18-hole matches the team score was 3-3, with Archie Quirk (F), Liam Fraser (F) and Riley Randell (T) winners for Lachlan. A play-off was required with the team captains playing sudden death. Archie managed to par the 1st hole to defeat the Parkes captain Taj Harrison. That win puts Lachlan into the next round. This is scheduled to be played at Golden Creek (Canbr) on Jan 13 where they will play either Illawarra or Moss Vale. Well done to the players and to H/Pro Will and the parents for their support. The 2025 G-NSW KENO 2-Person Ambrose State Final was held at Bonville in early December. Attending from Forbes, having won a regional final held here, was the pair of Niel and Carolyn Duncan playing in the Mixed Pair division. They enjoyed the hospitality and found the tournament a real experience. We reported earlier on their 1st round played on 1 December when they scored 71 nett. They hoped to improve in their 2nd round but a couple of unfortunate bounces saw them return a nett 73 and finish tied for 10th spot. The winners, from Palm Beach, finished with rounds of 65 and 64. The Men's Pairs division was won by a pair from Thurgoona (near Albury) while the Ladies Pairs division was won by a pair from North Ryde. All of their rounds were well under 70 nett. It is crystal ball time: This Saturday, 20 December, is an Individual Stableford event sponsored by Forbes Central Butchers. There will be a Stableford Medley on the Sunday. SUMMER SIXERS By SMOOTH SWINGER The players in the Forbes Golf Club Summer Sixers competition managed to navigate around the wet weather and produce some good scores. It was also a week where some surprise results saw top teams toppled. One of the last unbeaten teams finally met their ‘waterloo’ and succumbed to the pressure of leading. The ‘Still Trying’ team recorded a respectable score but Murray’s Mates with a last-ditch effort nudged below them and took the points. Another top team was also unseated. ‘Bump and Rums’ (105) who lead the Group 3 carded a score which is usually difficult to beat but they were undone by the wily F-troop and their tremendous 96 score. This was the bests core of the week and with Midpro were the only teams to score under 100. The only remaining unbeaten team Globe Hotel had to fight hard for their win and stay on top of the Gp 2 table. They managed 101.5 but were challenged by The Duffers with their 103. The closest win was in Gp2 by Globe Hotel over Duffers. Most other wins were by five points or more. This meant that ‘Team Score Bonus Points’ were hard to come by. The leaders in the groups are Gp1 - ‘Still Trying’ with a reduced lead, Gp 2 -Globe Hotel also with a small lead, Gp3 – ‘Bump and Rums’ still well ahead, and Gp4 – Shankaholics now share with Sandbaggers. The best member score was by Alan McLennan (Globe Hotel) with 31 nett. The best non-member score of 28.5 nett was by Wayne Wright (F-Troop) and which certainly helped his team. He got the weekly prize on count back from Jack Rix (Southside Swingers). We are into our last week (week 9) before the festive season break, looking to recommence on Monday 5 January. Don’t forget to plan ahead if you are going away and play games ahead to ensure your team has enough scoring cards. The 6s committee wish you all a Merry Christmas and no injuries on New Year’s Eve. Keep swinging. VETS GOLF Club "captains" were to the fore at the last twin-towns veterans golf competition played at Parkes for 2025 with Rob Lea (Parkes) and Ken Walton (Forbes) winning the Mystery Four-Ball aggregate. Lea, a long time Parkes executive drew recently elected Forbes club captain Walton and their combined score of 75 points was enough to win the day by a point from the Forbes pair of Steve Uphill and Frank Hanns. Thirty players contested the event - including former Parkes golf club member Peter Townsend who now calls Kempsey home - with the winners and runners-up receiving timely Christmas hams. Ken Walton also returned the day's best score with 40 points, one better than the Parkes pair of Gordon Pritchard and Rod Luyt. In the twin-towns shield - for the best six scores from each club - it was a close one with Forbes scraping in with 224 points to Parkes' 223. In the nearest-to-pins Peter Townsend and John Dwyer (Parkes) were closest on the fourth hole and Ken Sanderson (F) and Gordon Pritchard collecting two balls each on the 11th. The ball sweep went to 71 points and winners were: 73 - Ian Ward (P) and Alf Davies (F); 72 - Steve Edwards and Andrew Norton-Knight (F); 71 - Rod Luyt and Richard Hamilton (P); Peter Bristol (P) and Ross Williams (F); Gordon Pritchard and Alex Mackinnon (F); Ken Keith (P) and Peter Townsend. The encouragement award went to Kim Herbert (F) and John Pearce (P) with 55 points. This week's 2-man Ambrose at Forbes - players to choose their partners - will be the final twin-towns event for 2025 and some good prizes will be on offer following generous sponsorship by Woolworths Forbes and Forbes Scrap Metal (Les Little). As well as Parkes and Forbes players, the event is also open to members of the Lachlan Valley Veteran Golfers Association. Note that the shot-gun start tee-off will be 10am and nominations taken from 9.15. A trivia question to start today’s Tuesday social golf. What do they have in common? By now you’ve most likely seen/heard about the highly ranked pro golfer trying his best to make the cut at the recent Australian Open. He had a hick-up which put him in danger of missing the cut. He made the cut. Well a similar situation (in some circles) played out here in Forbes last Tuesday. We did say similar, no million dollars on the table for the winner but extreme pressure all the same. ‘Our man’ noted for car restoration and handling of a sheep fleece or two was making a charge trying to catch his playing partner and tear-away leader with three holes to play. A four pointer followed by a three had ‘our man’ in reach of the lead as he stepped up to the 18th tee. His playing partners, well two at least, were full of support for ‘our man’ urging him on. ‘You’ve got this’, ‘you’re playing exceptionally well’, ‘we’ve got the money on’, ‘a walk in the park before you collect’, ‘sweet swing and it’s all over’, ‘go get’um’, and on it went. ‘Our man’ steps up to play, a beautiful practice swing and in he moves for the kill. But the only thing to move was a frightened tee as swoosh goes by with no result. What did they have in common? If you can’t work it out ask the lady of the house, I’m sure she will know. After the failure, the result from the BG scribe for last Tuesday. “Twelve players today with Jeff Moon finding some hidden talent securing two birdies and amassing 31 points. Next best Alex Mackinnon on 27 with a tightly bunched field hot on their heels.” As usual coffee took centre stage after for some and you can be part of all this by being at the Pro Shop by 9am any Tuesday for ball toss to determine playing partners.