Rare double for Martinborough

Martinborough Golf Club has been celebrating two major successes over a memorable seven-day period.

First there was Lisa-Marie Ireland sharing the honours in the silver division section of the Wellington district women's champion of champions event, and then Jason van Zanten won the same men's title on the tough course at Karori last Saturday.

Martinborough hadn't produced a winner of either of those tournaments in over 50 years so to get two in a week was a memorable achievement.

On the home front there is no news from the women and last Wednesday was such a rotten day it's no wonder they didn't play.

So to Thursday and here the winner in a mixed competition attracting 36 players was Ailsa Griffiths with an impressive 49 points. Runner-up with 43 was Roger Parkinson and coming in third with 42 was Tora Boyne. Alister Holmes and Graeme McIsaac both ended up with 41 and completing the prize list with 39 was Graham Jacobson.

One of the club's highlights, the Toast stableford tourney, was held on Saturday and here 57 players representing 14 different clubs participated. Four golfers from the Grange club in Auckland attended but perhaps it was more likely the wine which appealed the most.

The winner of the men's event was Toby Tuoro from Masterton with 41 points from Terry Fraei and Malcolm Wood who were runners-up with 40. Martin Napier, Gavin Lovejoy and Kenneth Millar (Grange) had 39.

Emily Gillam (Grange) took out top spot in the women's section with 39 points and runner-up was Philippa Kirk with 38. Toshie Komai (Grange) was next with 35 while in fourth place was Kaye McIsaac with 34, followed by Kath Foot from Royal Wellington with 33 and Jocelyn Pollock from Masterton on a countback with 31.

A highlight of the day was a two scored by member George Kirk on the 7th hole, a par 4.

Sunday saw a very small turnout for club day and it was the Jacobson's who took out the major winnings. Graham, who played with sons Ryan and Trent, was the winner with 45 points and he also got the only two for the day. Runner-up was Bruce Ward with 41 and Ryan Jacobson finished with 40.