Above: Kerry Slater, Kim Kennedy and Jaqui Hall celebrated success after the championships.
By Ron Hottes
WARBURTON Golf Club held its annual championships during November, with the last round held on Saturday 19 November.
In less than ideal weather, the winners weren’t known until the very last hole in most of the grades.
The ladies president Jaqui Hall was the ladies open champion. She has won before and this win came on the back of three even rounds – for the ladies play over 54 holes. Jaqui plays off a handicap of 17, which means she had to be consistent to score well, and she was.
The most exciting win came in B Grade from 14-year-old Kim Kennedy, who finished only five shots from our open champion.
Kim comes from a golfing family, with her father a single-figure golfer, her uncle Shaun a handy player and her grandfather an ex-captain and president of the club – and still playing good golf.
She has improved quickly, slicing her handicap to 17 in double-quick time. Kim’s growing maturity showed in the wet and miserable last round, when she showed steadiness right through to the 18th hole.
C Grade winner was the ladies captain Kerry Slater. Kerry was not the favourite at the start of the tournament, but she showed remarkable consistency, not usually seen in C Grade, over all three rounds.
It must also be noted that Kerry had the added distraction of running the ladies side of the championships and so had plenty on her mind each time she went out to play.
If 54 holes is a real challenge to keep it all together, then 72 holes is a nightmare, and open champion Andrew Williams is to be commended for scoring so consistently over the four rounds.
‘Willo’, a previous champion on multiple occasions, came steaming home in the last round to just pip last year’s winner, Matt Ball.
It was an intriguing battle from go to whoa and both Jonathon Cross, another promising junior at 17 years of age, and Allan Hubbard challenging until near the end of the last round. They filled the third and fourth places in the tournament.
In the end, Andrew’s great 78 in the heavy conditions was the difference.
A classy effort by the 2011 Open Champion – Andrew also won the East Hills Trophy for best nett score over 54 holes.
B Grade saw a comfortable win to one of the club’s favourite members, Denis Barrot. Denis started well in the first round and kept it together for all four rounds. He had a healthy lead going into round four, and, although John Hall and Butch Hollis gained on him with solid efforts, they were never going to catch Denis. He eventually won by five shots from John.
C Grade was won by Ossie McClay. Ossie also set up a good lead after a sensational 84 in the second round, a great score by a C Grader. After that, he was never headed and the last round was a (wet) walk-in-the-park for steady Ossie.
