A SMALL field of 46 players, no doubt due to the wet conditions, saw some good golf in the not so good conditions. Best on the day and winner by a single shot was ‘handicapper’ Geoff Swaffield with 42 points. Well done Geoff and also a big thankyou to yourself and wife Betty for all your handicapping work over the past few years (Geoff and Betty have been made largely redundant due to the arrival of an updated Golf Link Handicap system). Next best was Syd Gilfillan with 41 points, good enough to win him B-grade nett. Other nett winners were Sandy Dunnwell with 39 points in A-grade and Paul Shepherd with 40 points in C-grade. Runners-up in each were Barry Brown (A-grade with 36 points), Bill Osborne (B-grade 39) and Daryl Heywood (C-grade with 38 points, 35 of which were accumulated over the first 13 holes). In the ball competition, Wayne “Wally” Lewis won the last one with 34 points on a countback.

Nearest to the pins were hard to win as usual, the 'shot of the day' going to Cam Darby in winning the Bent on Food voucher on the 9th/18th hole. Other sharpshooters included Nev Blanch on the Wingham Plaza Butchers 1st/10th, Larry Thompson the Manning Natural Healing 3rd/12th, Terry Harris the All About Conveyancing 4th/13th and Sandy Dunn completed a good day by winning the popular Bayview Seafoods 7th/16th hole with a good shot.

A GREAT Wingham open day saw 82 players hit off with a shotgun start. Although play was a little slower than usual, most had a great day, especially those from Harrington Waters with almost every one of their players winning something on the day. Scores were pretty good too with the best, that of Terry Payne with 42 points. Terry also won C-grade nett. Other winners included Neville Bell (A-grade with 40 on a countback) and Brian Haynes (B-grade with 42 points). Runners-up in each grade were Jim Bradshaw in A-grade with 40, John Thompson B-grade with 41 and former North Sydney “bear” Barry Casey in C-grade with a fine 41 points. Rex White was third in A-grade with 39 points, Alex Kees likewise in B-grade with 40 and Nev Hall came third in C-grade with 40 as well. Nearest to the pins included Brian Walker, Greg Drury and Pal Singh  (3rd/12th) and Steve Hoffman, Rob Perrin and Trevor Burns (7th/16th). The three straight drive winners in each grade were Nev Palmer, Wayne Murray and Brian Wilson. Dave Elliott won the all grades long drive with a great shot (he had a good coach).

THE threat of storms kept quite a few 'chookrunners' away Thursday, but 28 players still managed to greet the starter. A very lucky Graham Steel beat a very unlucky Garry Stackman on a countback, both with 22 points. Bill Cooper went out in the slightly better morning conditions, his 21 points good enough for third spot. Jim Clarke, off his very generous handicap, managed fourth spot with 20 points on a countback. Terry Woods was the unlucky '20 pointer' beaten on a countback. Nearest to the pins resulted in a win to Rod Brown with a 'goodun' on the 3rd/12th hole and to Rex White on the 7th/16th, needing a couple of tapes to measure it.

THIS Saturday is a single stableford event sponsored by Wingham Caltex. Sunday is the much-awaited 18 hole par three event, a first for our club, so to be a part of local history, turn up for a game. Then on October 3, the October Taree Toyota Monthly Mug/MRD Electrical/Kangaroofing Long Drives is scheduled. Finally a reminder that the summer weekly Ambrose kicks off on Wednesday October 7. This is for all players, handicap or not, in teams of two, three, four or five players with hit off any time after 12 noon. Good luck and good golfing.