PARKES GOLF

By PETER BRISTOL

Saturday’s results

Saturday was the Dirt Doctors Landscape Yard Stableford event.

Thanks go out to the Kennedy family for their ongoing support of the PGC.

Logan, Brenton and Rob Cheney and their regular volunteers have the course in magnificent shape post a couple of very valuable rain episodes.

Huge thanks to the volunteers who came on Friday and gave the course and surrounds an extra spruce up.

Bob Skinner has been throwing some paint around and Jordan was hitting anything and everything with the jet spray. It presented very well for the weekend's golf.

There were 73 starters on a magnificent Saturday for golf. Although chilly early, the afternoon golfers had all conditions in their favour to scorch the course.

Surprisingly the club house leader finished before lunch and couldn’t be caught. Michael Riley, another of the hardened Pennants players, posted a 43 point haul.

Oddly enough he shot 43 off the stick on both the front and back 9’s. We know what number he is loading up at the Star next time he’s there.

His round included 8 pars which was good golf off his 21 handicap.

It was no surprise to see Jack Kaden as the main challenger finishing 1 stroke shy.

Jack has been playing a lot of golf with club Pro Zac Kelly and is already starting to get the swagger and banter off the ‘gun’.

Jack had a birdie on the back 9 but 5 doubles ended his chances of a win.

Michael Dellaca and Craig Matthews both shot 39’s to be competitive on any other given day.

Other interesting scores were Blake Parker heading toward his best form with a 2 over off the stick, Zac Kelly could only fire an even par round as he preps for his Pro-Am – he won’t want to lose on his own court.

The Nearest The Pins on Saturday were – the Idlerite Tyrepower 1st Dave Chambers at 100cm, the Griffins Leading Edge 4th by Rob Lea at 564cm, the Parkes Ready Mixed Concrete 9th by Jack Matthews at 390cm, the Harvey Norman 11th by Ken Keith at 77cm and the Parkes Security Storage 17th by Mick Smith at 240cm.

The Money Hole was won by Rob Lea at 564cm.

Ball winners were Mick Dellaca, Craic Matthews 39, Blake Parker, Ross Kirvesniemi, Brendon Simpson, Rob Rea, Dylan Hood 37.

Sunday

On Sunday the Parkes Ladies Open was hosted with players from west of the Blue Mountains attending with 15 clubs represented and 75 players enjoying the great day and the course in excellent condition.

Bridgestone Mining Solutions Australia sponsored the event and the players were most appreciative of their support for women’s golf.

The day was held over 3 grades with the A grade held as a scratch event with handicaps to 22.

Debbie Murray from Dubbo was the winner with a solid 88 proving the course wasn’t easy on the day.

She beat home 3 players on 89 with Michelle Osborne and Rosetta Bartlett from Dubbo and Mandy Martin from Nyngan chasing hard.

Kristine Smith and Kaye Jones were the best placed local finishers on 93, just off the pace.

In the net event Wendy Slack-Smith from Wellington on 70 won on a countback with Rosetta Bartlett.

Kaye Jones was 3 strokes from the winner.

In the A grade Stableford event Michelle Osborne finished with a solid 39 points to win the event from Wendy Slack-Smith and Rosetta Bartlett on 38. Kay Jones was only 3 points off the leader once again.

In B Grade, where the handicaps went to 30, the scratch winner was Janine Wilson from Wentworth on 94, 2 clear of Charlotte Lee.

Dale Matthews was the best placed Parkes player with 98.

In the Net event Kerry Stirling from Forbes took out the prize with a good 69 1 in front of the chasers.

In C grade Cathy Loo-Shui from Wellington was the clear Stableford winner with 43 points 2 clear of the chasing pack.

Jill Crisp was back on 35 and led the charge for the Parkes ladies.

This was the first of the 3 premier events the club has on over next the 5 weeks with Zac Kelly’s Pro-Am on 17 April and the PGC Veteran’s Week of Golf from 4-8 May.

Next Saturday is the April Telescope Tyres / Hankook Masters Monthly Medal with Ray White Real Estate the day sponsor.

VETERANS GOLF

By JOHN DWYER

Forbes' Peter Barnes blitzed the field at last week's twin-towns veterans golf competition played at Parkes with his 44 points five better than his nearest rivals.

Barnes laid the foundations for his win with great execution and course management and it could have been an even better round but for two "gimme" putts he missed.

On a perfect day for golf 36 eager players faced the starter - 21 from Parkes and 15 from Forbes - following consecutive weeks of weather cancellations.

Forbes players also fought out the runners-up prize with Kim Herbert (39 points) getting the decision on a count-back from Alex MacKinnon.

In the twin-towns shield the scores posted by the top three finishers paved the way for a comfortable win for Forbes by 230 points to Parkes' 215.

The Parkes pair of Joe Davies and Gordon Pritchard won the A and B grade nearest-to-pins on the fourth hole, while Peter Barnes completed a good day by winning A grade on the 11th. No B graders hit the deck on that hole.

The ball sweep went to 35 points with winners as follows: 39 - Alex MacKinnon; 38 - Kath Jeffress (P); 37 - Joe Davies (P) and Ken Walton (F); 36 - Mick Bond (P) and Ross Williams (F); 35 - Phil Bishop and Warwick Wright (P) and Ken Sanderson and Don McKeowen (F).

The vets comp returns to Forbes this week. Nominations taken from 9am for a 9.30 start.

Don’t forget the next Lachlan Valley Association AGM and 18-hole monthly comp is in Parkes on April 16.

Also vets from Forbes and Parkes are reminded to support the Vets Weeks of Golf in Forbes from April 27 to May 1, followed by Parkes on May 4 to 8. Full details from both Pro Shops.