Young golfer wins Summer Cup
Otis Baxter finishes nine shots ahead of rival in stableford competition
With daylight saving nearly over, the Whangamata men’s golf Summer Cup competition has been completed — and a young student of the game, Otis Baxter, powered to a convincing win by nine strokes over senior Shaun Fay.
This competition is for the best four of six stableford rounds. Otis carded stableford rounds of 43, 41, 38 and 32 for a total of 154 — out of reach of Shaun on 145. Unravelling the mystery of stableford shows Otis shot 10 strokes better than his handicap, a great effort. Rounds five and six of the men’s championship pennants were played on Sunday, March 20, at the Cambridge Golf Club. In division one, in the morning round, the powerful Hamilton side proved too good for Whangamata, winning 5.5 to 0.5 with Logan Scott squaring his match. The afternoon round was closer, but Matamata won 3.5 to 2.5. Whangamata winners were Bryan Grafas and Logan Scott with Hunter Ussher squaring his match. Division three played at Huntly with two wins for Whangamata. In the morning, they beat Taumaranui 3.5 to 2.5 as Steve Goddard, Leigh Goodman and Kane Edwards had wins with Merv Rogers squaring his match.
The afternoon round resulted in a strong 5.5 to 0.5 win over Matamata — wins to Alan Smith, Steve Goddard, Merv Rogers, Kane Edwards, Leigh Goodman, with George Mcneil squaring his match. Whangamata’s Titoki golf clubrooms was recently reroofed as the existing roof proved uneconomic to repair.
The golf professional shop’s remodelling is progressing with increased floor space and a wider range of golfing products.
The golfing saying of the month comes from local Whangamata sports icon Dave, quipping somewhat ambiguously when asked how his golf form was. Dave’s response was: “I’ve been playing some good golf lately except for some patches!”