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Melton Valley Golf Club hosted their rescheduled Senior Amateur today, in considerably better weather than what was forecast for the original date. While the heavy winds created a challenge for players on the course, it helped keep them cool as the mercury hit 26 degrees late in the morning, one of the warmest days so far this Spring.
51 players including 7 locals ventured along the Melton Highway this morning, the inaugural year for the women’s component, with all of the players hitting the fairways of the Tony Cashmore designed course early in the day.
The 10-competitor strong women’s field saw Helen Pascoe (Buninyong) take Championship honours, returning a Scratch Stableford score of 26 points, edging out Heather Harley (Kooringal) with a total of 23 points. Both Helen and Heather were members of the Victorian Senior team that were victorious in the teams’ component at the Australian Senior Amateur Championships held in Ballarat recently. This is a fantastic achievement for which the whole team is to be congratulated for.
The stableford section was taken out by Bev Smith (Hepburn Springs) who had a great score in tough conditions of 33 points. Debbie Gorrin (Kooringal) was runner up in this section with 27 points.
Local knowledge prevailed in the scratch section, with Melton Valley member Mick Kaufman posting a fantastic 2 over par 73 off the stick to win by 3 shots from Rich Rivers’ Ian Frost. Mick’s round was very consistent, with one over par on both sides of the card.
Another local in Leo Strebs-Stelps took out the men’s nett section, returning a classy nett 70 off a 23 handicap. Rob Bride (Lang Lang) finished in second place by one shot with a nett 71 from a 13 handicap.
The Victorian senior tour moves straight to the other side of the city from here. First thing Monday will see them hit the fairways of Spring Valley in the first round of the Melbourne Senior Classic, then later this month they move on to the Ballarat district for the inaugural Eureka open, held at Buninyong and Midlands golf clubs over 15-16 November.
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