MEN'S GOLF By SHORT PUTT The weekend provided changeable weather with both sunshine and a few storms for the Forbes golfers. There was plenty to play for both medley and mixed events scheduled across the weekend. The Mixed Foursomes Championships, sponsored by DUNK Insurance, was played on Sunday 25 October. The field of 20 players, or 10 pairs, was down a little on previous years with some notable players unable to participate. But the play was still top notch. This proved to be a beneficial weekend for the Grierson family. Andrew and Sharon won the Scratch event with 124. Their first 18-holes had a patch in the middle of the front-9 where their game did not mesh. But their back-9 and repeat of the front-9 went very well with only the 7th being a speed hump the second time around. The Scratch runners-up were Niel and Brianna Duncan on 132. They also had a trouble patch through the middle of the first front-9 but compounded things with dropped shots on the 15th. The rest of their game was good but they had a missed shots 'here and there' day. The Handicap winners were Andrew and Sharon Grierson. Their nett score of 103.5 benefitted from their good scratch performance with only the second lowest handicap to play with. The Handicap runners-up were Stephen and Ev Uphill with 113.5 nett. They played off the same handicap as the winners but dropped shots ‘here and there’ which did not help their cause. The NTPs went to: 9th Men – A Grierson, ladies – L Cowhan, 18th men – H Steele-Park, ladies – Not played. Head pro Ellesha Michie congratulates runners up Niel and Brianna Duncan. Scratch scores were generally higher than previous years but coincidently grouped in the 90’s for the first 18-holes. The handicaps were very similar with only a three shot range across the majority of them. The highest handicap pair unfortunately could not take advantage of this. They had very good holes interspersed with horrible holes. Their first front-9 started with a par and did well until the 4th hole. From there they scored – double, triple, double-par and double – to eat up most of their handicap. Their second time on the front-9 was also not a good result. Across the teams most pairings had trouble on the back-9. A couple of teams had the worst 9-hole score on the front-9 and mainly due to issues on the 4th hole. Two’s were scored on the 3rd and 9th holes (two each) with two birdies recorded on the 13th by Davidson/Barnes and Lyell/Cogswell. The event on Saturday was a 4BBB Aggregate Stableford Medley sponsored by Todd Callaghan Painting. The field of 68 included four visitors, each of whom were paired with local players. Teams needed to be on the game to score on every hole and be among the winners. The winning pair were Andrew Grierson and Adrian Matthews with 74 points. They managed 34 points on the front-9 and came home strong with 40 points. Neither of them missed scoring points on any hole. Their 7th hole was very good with 3-pts and 4-pts combining for a ‘7’. And the burden was evenly shared. The runners-up pair were Barry Shine and Sandy Paterson who managed 72 points. Sandy missed a point on the 2nd hole but they did well enough although they could not amass a ‘7’ or ‘8’ pointer. The best ladies pair were Wendy Simmons and Sharon Grierson who carded 70 points. Sharon had a couple of fumbles with no points and unfortunately Wendy could not score high enough to cover the gap. Without those little items they may well have challenged for the win. The individual comp was won by Hamish Steele-Parke with 43 points. Had had a wipe on the front-9 but managed 2’s and 3’s on the back-9 to score 24 points there. He hoped this form would carry him into the Mixed Foursomes but it was not to be. The ball sweep went to 69 points going to: 71 – Woonton/Martino, Fairley/Flakelar; 70 – W Simmons/S Grierson, Hanns/Taylor; 69 – J & G LeBrocque. The NTPs went to: 9th Ladies – E Uphill, Men – K Sanderson; 18th Ladies – Nil, Men – J LeBrocque. Neither of them converted for 2’s. The Super pin was won by Blake Dunne (190cm) but he missed his ‘2’. His shot looked only okay so there was no excitement about a possible hole-in-one. Here is the news: Last Sunday the Forbes Junior Encourage Shield team (comprising local players) played against Gerringong at Springwood GC in Sydney. This is a Match play event on Handicap. The Forbes team on better handicaps were giving many shots to the Gerringong players. The Gerringong players all excelled themselves on the day resulting in a win over Forbes by 4.5 – 1.5. Congratulations to the Forbes players for their sterling effort to win the Central West Division. Travelling and playing at the Sydney courses has been an experience for them. Thanks go to Caleb Hanrahan, Dave Quirk H/Pro Leesha and the parents for their support and coaching. One of our Junior players Lenny Iyer is into his second week of his ‘Nedd’s Uncomfortable Challenge’ aiming to raise money for the Mobilise foundation to help the homeless. He has opted to complete an Olympic-distance triathlon for each of 10 days. This involves a 10kin run before school, then a 1.5km swim and 40 km bike ride after school. He will be supported along the way by good mate Lachlan Hodge. Donations can be made through – www.neddsuncomfortablechallenge.com/fundraisers/Lenny Iyer The Men's Pennants 2027 begins in February. Players are requested to nominate as soon as possible as the handicap cut-off date is the end of November. It would be good to get four teams representing Forbes in the four divisions so please put your name and other details on the nomination sheet in the Pro Shop. We want to develop a pool for each team to provide flexibility. Speak to H/Pro Leesha if you are interested in using the mobile phone scoring app. She will explain the details and how to set this up. Its use is purely voluntary. It is crystal ball time: This Saturday 31 October is an 18-hole Stableford Multiplier, sponsored by the Forbes Tuesday Golfers. This is a chance to see how much better you could do in comparison to last week’s Saturday event. VETS GOLF There was no catching local larrikin Dale Stait who streeted the field to win last week's twin-towns veterans golf competition played at Parkes. In a somewhat disappointing field of 29 - 17 from Parkes and 12 from Forbes - Dale's impressive 42 points was three ahead of Parkes vets captain Rob Lea on 39, while Forbes president Peter Barnes filled the minor placings one back on 38 points. Parkes gained a rare win in the twin-towns shield by 224 points to Forbes' 209. The windy conditions proved testing at times which was evident in the nearest-to-pins with no players hitting the green in one on the par three fourth hole, while it was a little easier on the 11th with the two Peters - Barnes and Boschman from Parkes - winning A and B grade respectively. Parkes' Barry Whittaker was the encouragement award winner following a three-way count-back with the Forbes pair of Ted Morgan and Ken Sanderson. It was a very happy Ted who on finishing his round was sure he was set for his first "Bradman" award. The ball sweep went to 33 points with winners as follows: 38 - Peter Barnes (F); 37 - John Dwyer and Peter Bristol (F); 36 - Peter Boschman (P) and Don McKeowen (F); 35 - Niel Duncan and Barry Shine (F); 33 - Lindsay Elliott and John Ivey (P) and Warwick Judge (F). Forbes plays host this week - nominations from 8.45am for a 9.30am shot-gun start. The Tuesday 12 hole competition has a new ‘member’ in Robert Scott who tasted the joy of a morning walk then coffee talking problems of the world. With 11 starters it came to a three-way count-back to find winner and that is Warwick Judge from Andrew Norton-Knight and Jeff Moon all scoring 26 points. Not far behind were Neal Herbert and Barry Shine on 22 with the rest of the field within a point or two. After two rounds for the October Top Dog award leader in Andrew Nort0n-Knight on 55 points from Jeff Moon 54, Warwick Judge 51 and Barry Shine 50 the closest. Tuesday competition golf and a friendly hit over 12 holes for everyone, ball toss at 9am for playing partners.
