Leprechauns lurk and lark at Mahunga

FROM KEVIN MAY
There were leprechauns out in force on the course on Saturday, when the competition was a stableford round with a difference.
Points were only scored by the team of four, with the top three stableford scores added together and multiplied by the fourth score. So there were holes where the teams did not score any points, but there were others where lots of points were scored.
There were also a few holes where the leprechauns caused a bit of a problem. The third hole saw the teeing ground very unstable, with players standing on tyres to play their tee shots. Robin Britt's tee shot was well astray, with his ball finishing very close to the bunker on the sixth hole, but he probably played the best shot of his career by playing his approach over the big tree behind the third green, landing on the green and even getting back spin on it. Players also had some problems on the sixth tee, when the ball was close to waist height, while on the sixteenth, the leprechauns used their power to transform player's putters into a hockey stick on the sixteenth green. For putting up with those problems on those holes, points scored for the holes were doubled. But double nothing is still nothing, as one team found out twice out of the three holes.
But, not content with those holes, the leprechauns popped up all over the course and did their best to distract the golfers, with music and singing, and also some dancing around the flag stick.
The prizes for the competition were drawn out at the end of the day. For the record, the best score for the day was the 187 points scored by the team of Jake Paulsen, Terry Fleet, Ray Loader and Ross Ireland. But in that total, they still had three holes with no points, but that was offset by a 27 point total on the fifth hole and 22 points on the 13th hole.
The next best team was that of Bruce Herangi, Laurence Butler, Jean Bayly and Thomas Tiopira with a 166 total, while the team of Mark Schultz, Shannon Rimene, Rob McKelvey and Graham Duckett were just one point less.
The overcast and wet conditions earlier in the day saw a smallish group play in Sunday's medal round. Top spot in the competition was shared by Brent Daniel and Darryl Coley on 67 nett, with Bill Leahy taking third place on 73 nett, while Ron Hutcheson took Lukies Lucky Last with a score of 90 nett.
On Tuesday, the veteran's group played in a four ball bestball round, and the scoring was very close.
Top billing was shared by the pairings of Lin Jordan and Alby Haley, Bill Christiansen and Yvonne Allsworth and Alan Allsworth and Sue Ratapu with scores of 46 nett, with Ron Hutcheson and Susan Christall in fourth place on 47 nett.
The ladies nearest to the pin on the third hole went to Susan Christall and Irene Phelps took the one on the sixth, while for the men it was Jim Munn who took out the one on six and Bill Christiansen the seventh. There was just one hole in two, and that was scored by Ray Loader.
Next week's competition for the veteran's group will be a par round.
This coming Saturday will see the men playing the first round matches in the Dove Trophy, as well as the second round of the Clark Rosebowl, while for the ladies it will be the first round of their Malmo Par competition.
Sunday will see the ladies involved in the second round of the Tilson Slaver at Carterton, where their opponents will be Masterton, while for the men there will be 12 players at Eketahuna playing in the Wairarapa team Stableford competition.
For those players at home, the club competition will be a stableford round.
The starting sheet for the Easter Tournament is filling up rapidly, with the blank spots being before 9:15 am, although there a couple of places for one or two players later in the day. So, if you want to play, it would pay to get your names in as quickly as possible.