On a glorious Saturday morning, with the sun shining and a gentle breeze rustling through the gum trees, a mob of roos and a few corellas, gathered to watch the titans of golf battle it out Club and Grade Championships. 

The Open Championship was poised on a knife’s edge, with Alex holding a one shot lead over defending champion Calvin, Jas 4 off the lead, and 4 time winner Darren lurking 6 back.

Alex started solidly with par, par while Darren started to turn up the heat with birdie, birdie. Calvin and Jas lost ground over the first few holes. After 9 Darren had clawed back one stroke finishing the 9 even to Alex’s +1 while Jas and Cal had slipped from contention with too much to do coming home if Alex held his nerve. 

Both players had a birdie in the first few holes of the back 9, to keep it tight. In the end, Darren played a great final round 73, while Alex held nerves and expectation at bay to close it out by 2 strokes.

Congratulations Alex Rachkovski – 2021 YGC Club Champion

 

The A Grade (Nett) held equal promise with just 7 strokes separating the top 8 players. last year’s winner, Calvin Plowright, went into the last round with a 1 shot lead over Thabo Molwalefhe, with Ronnie Dingle, Alex and first round leader Jack Leonello just a few behind.

As it developed Thabo turned in 4 consistent rounds to finish +2 after 72 holes, Alex couldn’t close the handicap gap and Cal, Ron and Jack had last rounds to forget. Rob Paravizzini put together 2 great last rounds (-1, +1) and was a real chance to swoop in and take the win after he was -4 through 11 until a stumble on the way home stalled his run but still saw him leap into 3rd place.

Congratulations Thabo Molwalefhe – 2021 YGC A Grade Champion

 

The B Grade (Nett) looked to be an enthralling affair, with 5 players within 6 of the lead – all looking to chase down Rod Heideman after his -7 in the 3rd round gave him a 1 stroke lead (+2) over Mark Huybers (+3) , with Road Mountney (+4), Bruce Thomas (+5) and Mike Lester (+6) right in the mix and Witho and the Big Q a couple further back (+10).

An Eagle from Rod on the second hole of the final round could easily have finished off lesser opponents, but Bruce defied the bookies, and with a birdie of his own on 7 turned (-3), to stay in touch with Rod. 

Rod was not to be denied this year, finishing the final round (-5) [to add to his -8 third round] to hold off Bruce (-3) for a 5 shot win after the 72 holes, while Mark (+1) and Rod (+3) both played solid golf.

Congratulations Rod Heideman – 2021 YGC B Grade Champion

 

The C Grade (Nett) was looking like a spaghetti western, with Peter Marsiglia and Mark Bazzoni locked at +5 at the start of the day, with Lucas Maiorana adding some sauce to the mix.  Ash Crawford, Victor Cheche, Paul Clifton were all 4 back at (+9) and with Jacqui Lamoureux at (+10) they added more spice to the mix. 

Peter started scratchily, struggling to find the rhythm and touch that  saw him lead into the final day while Mark and Lucas were playing solid ‘par’ golf. Peter’s challenge ended after a disastrous 7th hole, and although he parred the 8th the damage was done.

Mark turned +2 to be right in the hunt, but faded through the turn.  A brief glimmer of hope was raised after successive pars at 13 and 14, but a quadruple bogey 7 at 16th snuffed his challenge.

Jacqui would be left to rue the quadruple bogey on the 4th hole as she fought back from that blemish to play the rest of the round 1 under, to finish second by 3 shots.

Lucas meanwhile was quietly going about his business, staying away form big numbers while picking up pars at 7 & 8 and 15 & 16 – holes which have been known to derail rounds in the blink of an eye. At the end of play, Lucas’ (-1) final round was enough to haul in the leaders and take the trophy by 3 from Jacqui, Victor and Mark. 

Congratulations Lucas Maiorana – 2021 YGC C Grade Champion

 

 

Also played on Saturday was the Medallist of Medallists: this contest saw all of the medal winners of the past 12 (covid-19 interrupted) months line up for the honour of “being the best, of the best, of the best, (sir)” (Pardon the pop culture reference). The eligible medal winners were:

Bruce Thomas (-3)
Jas Kooner (+3)
Jack MacDonald (+4)
Roland Westlow (DNP)
Joe Caruana (+10)
Thabo Molwalefhe (-1)
Jim Vass (DNP)
Jeff Anson (-1)
Neil McGlinchey (-3)

with Neil McGlinchey (-3) taking the win on countback (back 9) from Bruce Thomas (0) 

Congratulations Neil McGlinchey – 2021 YGC Medallist of Medallists

 

Congratulations to all our winners, and to all those who each week played across the year.

Let’s hope we can move into next year with a greater sense of hope, and community, as we return to ‘normality’.

 

regards,

Stuart Thompson

President

Yarrambat Golf Club

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