Easter tournament centre stage

Easter week-end saw the clubs big Easter Tournament take centre stage, and there were some very good scores, as well as a number of what could be politely called below average scores.
But first off, there was the usual practice round on Friday, and there were a number of good scores in this competition. Best of the day was the 45 points scored by Ivan Karaitiana as a result of his 5 under par round of 67.
Second in the top group was Jason Walker with 43, followed by Gavin Byford on 41, Warren Strawbridge on 40 and Tim Williams on 39 points.
Chic Reiri led the scoring in the middle group with 44 points, with both Darryl Coley and Alf Sio sharing second on 41 points, with Shane Stewart on 39 and Robert Cargill on 38 rounding out the prizes.
The third group saw Danny Waerea with 44 points having a comfortable margin over his closest challengers ? Ken Sterne and John Pitau on 37 points, followed by Des Jepson on 36 points.
The women's competition was won by Thelma Cooper on 38 points, from Trish Gallon and Julie Cargill on 36 points, with Nan Sterne in fourth place on 35 points.
Holes in two were scored by Jason Walker, Danny Waerea, Warren Strawbridge, and Graham Duckett.
In the tournament proper, Ivan Karaitiana carried on from his Friday form to take out the top men's group with 84 points, from Jason Walker on 80, Peter Brooky on79, Tama Hiroti on 78 and Bruce Herangi on 77 points.
The second men's group went to Haira Paku on 79 points from Matt Paku on 77, Roydon Trask on 76, with a gap back to Fred Brittain on 71 and Darryl Coley on 70 points.
The third men's group was taken out by John Harp on 81 points, from John Pitau on80, Syd Whittington on 78, while both Robin Britt and Thomas Tiopira on 75 points.
Rose Alexander won the top ladies group with 77 points, followed by Nan Sterne on 75, Janet Hunter and Anita Karaitiana on 73 and Mary Isaac on 67 points. The second group was taken out by Barbara Reeves on 82 points, from Di Hunter on 77, with a gap back to Iris Wehipeihana and Janet Shaw on 71 points, then Jennifer Strawbridge on 66 points.
There were twenty two holes in two recorded over the two days.
On Tuesday, the veteran's group played in a stableford round. Leading the way for the ladies was Janet Shaw with 40 points, followed by Irene Phelps on 38 and Nancy Baylis on 37.
The men must have been showing the effects of a lot of recent golf, as they were not able to match that level of scoring. Best of the lower handicap group was Fred Brittain with 36 points from Ken Luke on 35, while in the second group Alby Haley had the best score of 33 points, with a big gap back to Syd Whittington on 28 points, and that was by lot from Ron Hutcheson.
The ladies nearest to the pin on the third hole was won by Evelyn Munn, and Janet Shaw took the one on the sixth hole. The men's nearest to the pin on the sixth hole went to Ian Gemmill, while ken Luke got the one on the seventh hole.
As next Tuesday is ANZAC Day, the veterans group will next be playing the following Tuesday, 2nd May, when they will be competing in the second of five rounds for the Haddon Donald trophy.
This coming week-end has the women playing the second of their two rounds for the Nancy MacCormack Foursomes on Saturday, which also doubles as the second round for the Judy Verhagen Trophy/ On Sunday, the ladies will be involved in the second round of their Combined Committee stableford competition, the second of the Francis Stableford and the first round of the Home Pennants competition.
For the men, Saturday is a stableford round.
Sunday has the men's Marquis Shield team in action at Martinborough, where their opponents will be the Featherston team. Featherston are the joint leaders in this year's competition while Mahunga lies in fifth position, so they will be no pushover. Featherston won the corresponding match last year, and it hard to see Mahunga making up much ground on the teams ahead of them on the table. But it is not impossible.
For the men who stay at home, Sunday's competition is set down as a Chicago Stableford round.
That is a competition where stableford points are scored during the round without handicaps being used, but then the player gets to add their handicap at the end of the round. Generally, this type of competition favours the higher handicapped players.
It is now just a two and a bit weeks to the Wairarapa 15 ? 36 Handicap Strokeplay Championship, which is being played over 36 holes on Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th May, with one round each day.
Entries are being taken for the event at the club house.