Alexanders clean up Easter tournament

By Maurice O'Reilly
Mike and Rose Alexander cleaned up the WBS Mahunga Easter Tournament in 2005, with Mike taking out the men's group 2 section, and Rose taking out ladies group 1.
A capacity field faced the starter, with the course in excellent condition, and we were lucky with reasonably good weather for the tournament and some excellent scoring particularly from some of the senior golfers.
Jo Hargood provided the highlight of the tournament in scoring a hole in one on Saturday on the par 3 third. It was Jo's fourth hole in 1 in 4 years and rightly so, proved to be the highlight of her weekend as far as the golf went, although she finished the round on Saturday with 39 points. Congratulations Jo.
Friday saw a practice round and Nuki Gordon had the best round of the day with 44 stableford points, comfortably taking out group 1 from Alf Puhara with 39 points and Bill Graham next with 38 points.
In group 2 visitor Robert Forth from Levin led the way with 42 points, taking the group by lot from Bill Leahy also with 42 points and Mike Gardiner of Buckley with 37 points. Group 3 was taken out by Jim Calder of Buckley with 39 points, by lot from Paul Croft also with 39 and Shirley Calder also of Buckley with 38 points.
Saturday saw the tournament proper start and Mike Alexander was on fire scoring 46 points for his opening round. From all reports it was pretty to watch.
He was closely followed by Graeme Dick, Ian Grant and Mike Foote who all had 45 points for their fist round. Bob Eadie and Lance Duckett had 44 points, with Lance recording a gross of 67, 5 shots under the card.
On Sunday Mike Alexander scored 43 points to give him a total of 89 points for the tournament and comfortably take out the men's group 2 from David O'Reilly with 81 points and Brian Chappell with 80 points. In group 1 Colin Vanderwiel got home with a 46 point round on Sunday to give him a total of 86 points from Bob Eadie with 84 and Ivan Karaitiana with 83 points.
In group 3 Ian Grant followed up his first round score of 45 points by scoring 43 points on Sunday for a total of 88 for the tournament and take the group from Mike Foote with 84 points and Shane Cassidy from Buckley with 82.
For the ladies Rose Alexander consolidated her Saturday round of 38 points with a further 39 points on Sunday to take out ladies group 1 from Rana Gardiner of Buckley, Susan Somerville of Te Marua, and Anita Karaitiana all with 76 points. In Group 2 it was the veteran ladies to the fore, with Janet Shaw recording a total of 78 points to take the group, from Maureen Flynn with 76 points, followed by Jean Bayly on 74 and Jennifer Strawbridge another Buckley visitor with 69 points.
It was an excellent weekend that was enjoyed by all, and thanks must go out to all our sponsors for their continued support.
Monday saw a small field with some good keen golfers lining up for their fourth round of the weekend. The club competition for the day was a Nassau Stableford and Greg Granich led the way with 44 points with Mathew Biel showing improvement on his Easter tournament rounds to score 39 points.
On Tuesday the vets played their usual stableford round and for the men first in group 1 was Fred Brittain with 38 points from Bill Chritiansen on 35 points.
In group 2 Syd Whittington had 37 points followed by Alby Haley with 34 points. The scoring in the ladies groups was much higher with group 1 being taken out by Daphne Jordan with 43 points, closely followed by Susan Christall on 42. In group 2 Nancy Baylis also had 43 points and just headed off Cilva Richmond with 42 points.
This Saturday for the men sees the semi finals of the Dove Trophy and Nichol Cup competitions, and the final round of the Clark Rosebowl. Tee off times for the Dove Trophy and Nichol cup matches are: 12 noon: J Harp, R Cocks, R Loader, F Brittain; 12.07: D O'Reilly, K Hunter, K Ruhe, T Tiopira. There should be some interesting battles in that lot.
The club competition on Saturday is a par round. For the ladies it is the third round of their LGU and nett aggregate competitions, as well as a Faulknors Service Station shootout round.
Sunday will be reasonably quiet at Mahunga with the Junior Pennants playing Masterton No. 3 at Masterton, and the Marquis Shield team also in action, playing Featherston at Masterton, and looking to improve on their first round effort.
The club competition is a medal round and for the men it is also a Faulknors Service Station Shootout round, while the ladies have a stableford round. All the best to those representing the club this weekend.