4 years after winning his first Cranbourne Senior Amateur, Michael Jackson from Yarra Yarra has done it again! His consistency is hard to match as he backed up his first round of 74 with a one over par round of 73. However, recent Yarra Courses winner Gary Easte wasn’t laying down. Easte finished with his second round with one shot more than Jackson as he saw his 8 foot putt on the last hole miss on the high side. Jackson’s front nine of 37 put him in a strong position and he maintained his cool, shooting 36 on the back nine. Easte, instead went out only in 34 but, perhaps feeling some pressure, only managed a 40 on the back nine.
The 36 hole scores for these two 1 markers were basically reversed and put them in a play off for the title. Michael, better known as Jacko by the senior group, is definitely in a purple patch. His confidence is pretty high after winning the Championship at Yarra Yarra for the first time at the age of 70. That might’ve helped in the play off as he only needed one hole to put Easte out of the contest with a birdie. Excellent effort by both players!
In the Handicap Trophy a count back was needed to break the tie between Steve Wallace (The National) and well known senior Pat Giles (Goonawarra). It was Giles’ strong second round of 73 (68 nett) which decided the winner. Despite Wallace’s best efforts to sustain his form after yesterday’s fabulous round of 70, today’s 74 nett only gave him the runner up position in the nett trophy.
The Cranbourne Senior Amateur has proven to be one of the most successful events in the senior calendar with a full field of 112 players competing for this year’s title. This event is in its sixth year, and its popularity is only partly due to the golf course lay out which is rated within the best 70 courses in Australia. The other part is that this event was grown, nurtured and promoted for many years by Richard Froebel, an important member of the seniors group for many years. Thank you to Richard for his legacy!
Special thank you is due to the Cranbourne Golf Club team who facilitated the running of the event and presented the course and lunch in the best possible way…I think they know it as “The Cranbourne Way”!
Click here to see Final Results