Golf: St Clair sets early pace

Michael Minty.
Michael Minty.
St Clair set the pace in the opening round of the men's senior A pennant series by beating Island Park 5-1.

Island Park captain and No1 Michael Minty was the only Waldronville player to post a win, beating Ryan Bellamy on the 15th green.

St Clair No3 Brent McEwan and No4 Chris Snow also won their matches with three holes to spare at the expense of Monty Wong and Mike Wray respectively.

In the battle of the veterans playing at No6, St Clair's Tony Giles won the final hole to edge masters representative Andrew Hobbs.

St Clair was without the services of Sport Otago's Michael Ormandy as well as the club's top four juniors who were competing in the Junior Order of Merit final at Millbrook and Jacks Point during the weekend.

Such depth begs the question whether St Clair might enter two teams in the pennant event next season.

Playing at home, defending champion Otago Blue edged ahead of North Otago with three wins and a half.

North Otago was with the services of Otago under-19 team member Scott Clark and Zain Pennycook who were competing in the Central Otago event but went close to upsetting the top Otago team.

Nick Borren beat Jonathan MacKay on the 17th green while Daniel Elder at No4 and Michael Smith at No6 were Balmacewen's two other winners.

No5 Ben Patston tipped the balance in his team's favour by halving with Gary Watling.

No2 Gary Creedy 2 beat Blue's captain Brandon Hodgson on the 14th green while Cameron Ryder clinched a narrow win over Jason Hughes on the final green.

The remaining match between Chisholm Links and Otago Gold was tied at 3-3 with each team gaining a solitary point.

Kyle Geary won the top game for the Links team beating Ben Turner on the final hole while former Christchurch Club golfer Jimmy Philip evened the score, winning the final hole to beat Sean Geary.

For Otago Gold, Jeremy Morgan and John McIntee had solid wins while Cody McMullan and Peter Rae were too strong for Murray Edgar and Will Young respectively.

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