One shot win for Otene at Waimate
The consistent Kerry Otene just did enough to win this year’s Waimate Plains golf tournament at Manaia on Sunday.
Otene shot rounds of 70-68-138 to finish one stroke ahead of Taranaki coach Aarun Langton (71-68-139) while Manaia’s Caleb Symes (75-70-145) and Tumahu’s Joseph Doyle (70-75-145) were another six strokes further back in third.
The best net went to Manaia golfer Ross Johnstone (86-23-63 and 94-23-71- 134) with Inglewood’s Willy Wilson (81-18-63 7 92-18-74- 137) second. ❚ The Inglewood Golf Club played host to the Women’s over 50’s strokeplay and teams event last week. In the teams event, the Urenui Two quartet of Evelyn Mills, Helen Newton, Marion Coleman and Judith Hymers won with a combined total of 105 points, just one point ahead of the Westown One team.
In the individual strokeplay competition, the best net in division one went to Inglewood’s Gail Herbert (83-16-67) while the top stableford went to Ann Aitkin with 36 points.
In division two, Sharon Joseph (91-23-68), also from Inglewood, won the net with Kaitake’s Kim Woodward’s 36 points the best stableford. Tumahu’s Donna Sharpe (104-37-67) was best net in division three and Carole Bolton (37 points) of Westown, top stableford. ❚ The Taranaki women’s masters team head to Ngaruawahia this weekend to compete in the interprovincial. The team of Debbie McCullum, Svala Garner, Anne Braithwaite and Joanne McDonald, will play four rounds of gross stableford with the best three scores counting towards the team score. While winning the event may not be a realistic goal for the team, a top five finish is definitely a possibility if they can consistently produce scores of 30 points plus. ❚ A six over par final round 78 at the New Zealand Strokeplay Championships in Hastings on Sunday prevented Fletcher Broderick from any hopes of a top 20 finish. After an eight over par 80 on day one, Broderick fought back well with a 67 to make the cut for the weekend.
However, a third round 73 left him in a tie for 25th place heading into the final round.
Eventually he had to settle for 39th spot after 72 holes. Fellow Taranaki golfer Ethan Jones (72-77-75-78-302) finished in 53rd place, while Te Ngutu’s James Malone missed the cut.
Broderick and Jones will be in the field for the Barefoot and Thompson Akarana Open which begins on Thursday.
In a strong professional and amateur field, the two will realistically be aiming to make the cut of the top 50 and ties and anything after that will be a bonus. Taranaki Professionals Grant Moorhead, Stephen Heyes and Brad Hayward will also be in the field, all hoping for a high placed finish at the end of the weekend. ❚ The third round of the women’s weekend pennant was held at Manukorihi on Sunday. The host club took full advantage of playing on their home course with a 31⁄ - 11⁄ win against a strong Te Ngutu side. Inglewood had a win by the same margin against New Plymouth who is yet to win a match this year. Kaitake came out on top against Hawera 3-2 to remain unbeaten this year and Manaia had a good win against Westown by the same margin.
V