Golf: St Clair adds to big lead

An unbeaten St Clair team continued to amass points and games after beating Otago Gold by a 5 to 1 margin in damp conditions at Balmacewen on Saturday.

St Clair has opened up an unassailable lead of 17 points and 27.5 games, well ahead of second placed Otago Blue on 10 points and 19.5 games.

Otago Blue has a game in hand after Saturday's match against Island Park was not played, as the Park's Waldronville course was flooded.

Chisholm Park jumped from last place to fourth on the table, after winning four matches to beat Taieri on a dry Chisholm Park Links.

For St Clair, Ryan Bellamy downed Jeremy Morgan in 14 holes and Jakob Bleach beat Murray Edgar with two holes to spare.

At No1, Brent McEwan beat Harry Smith on the seventeenth green while Michael Ormandy (No3) and Stephen Hitchcox (No5) also posted 2 and 1 victories.

At No6, Chris Timms was the only Balmacewen winner posting a 3 and 2 margin at the expense of St Clair junior Connor Ross.

At Chisholm Park, the match looked set to be a draw but a strong finish by two of the local players gave the home team three points.

The battle of the top players went to Taieri's Mark Andrews who posted a convincing 6 and 4 margin over Sean Geary.

But Sean's brother Kyle at No2 evened the score with a narrow win over Callum Stringer while Brent Butler (No6) gave the Park an early lead beating Ian Boath on the 15th green.

Park captain Mark Collie lead Taieri No4 Ken Shaw for most of the round but only managed to squeak home by one on the final green.

The first fightback was from Park No5 Peter Rae who trailed Elliot Hornbrook by three with four holes to play.

Back to back birdies at 15 and 16 reduced the deficit to one and the pair halved the 17th hole in pars.

Rae had the inside running and seemed set to snatch a half on the final hole but Hornbrook rolled in a 6m putt to halve the hole and win the match.

The deciding match was between the No3 golfers and Park's Conor Jamison trailed Taieri's experienced campaigner Brett Kennelly going into the homeward nine.

Jamison staged a spirited fightback, winning the final hole to take the honours and give his team the vital fourth win.

 

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