From a tense finish that led to Nathan Bagnall taking out his 12^th title to impressive junior, Jacob Stewart, once again notching up a win, Club professional,  Les Bennett, gives us a comprehensive wrap up of the 2017 Club Championships.

Drenching overnight rain cleared to a perfect day for the third round of the Iron Jack Singleton Golf Club Championship. The course just keeps getting better and better and as a result there were some standout scores.

Recently crowned Veterans champion Bob Peters shot A grade’s best nett score of 66 to take away the $50 winner’s prize. Shane Duggan was unluckily beaten into runner’s up place by way of a countback.

Rick Janssen, the darling of B grade returned the day’s best score; a nett 64, to win B grade. The third round is traditionally known as moving day and Rick was certainly one of the big movers. Scott Humby took out second shot with a commendable 66.

Louis Sneddon turned around two forgettable opening rounds to fire a nett 65 for a C grade victory. Taj Vesper pressed forward with his claims for a nett C grade championship win by taking the C grade runner’s up prize with his nett 66.

Saturday’s Secret 9 competition first place was awarded to Zac Hayes with a nett 30. Zac defeated Adam Egas (32), Taj Vesper (32), and Rick Janssen (32).

Sunday dawned with ideal conditions and the top four players in each grade were seeded to hit off in the final three groups.

For Sunday’s individual Stroke event Mark Forster tied good mate Daniel Storey for A grade’s nett prize with Mark winning on a count back.

Shaun Thomas’ nett of 69 was enough for a B grade victory. He finished the count back winner ahead of Stu Leggett.

The C graders also tied for the winner and runner up. Ted Casey got the better of Louis Sneddon; both finishing with 67 nett.

Sunday’s Secret 9 went to Ted Casey, while the next three place getters were Zac Hayes, Reese Brinkworth, and Mark Forster.

After all those rounds the winners had been decided. Nathan Bagnall won his twelfth championship with rounds of 72, 73, 70, 73 in what was a very tense finish. A missed 3 metre putt by Mark Forster on the 72nd hole would have sent the championship into a play-off.

Nathan is now in rarified air as he matches Club legend Roger Worms’ record of 12 wins. His four round tally of 288 beat home Mark Forster by 1 stroke.

Rick Janssen was the elated B grade Champion. Rick’s 326 total edged out Reese Brinkworth by a solitary stroke.

C grade was won a little more convincingly than the other grades. Matt Maher had a 4 round total of 370 to win by 3 strokes. He defeated Louis Sneddon and Frank Palmowski.

Jacob Stewart is once again the Singleton Golf Club junior champion. This is Jacob’s last year in the juniors and he will no doubt perform admirably in the adult’s division next year.

After 72 holes the scratch and nett winners in A, B, C grades were:

A Scratch: Nathan Bagnall 288, Mark Forster 289, Chad Vesper 294.

A Nett: Brad Kelly 276, Mark Forster 277, Dan Storey 279, Nathan Bagnall 280.

B Scratch: Rick Janssen 326, Reese Brinkworth 327, Tony Rock 333.

B Nett: Stu Leggett 278, Reese Brinkworth 279, Dave Palmer 281 Rick Janssen 282.

C Scratch: Matt Maher 370, Louis Sneddon 373, Frank Palmowski 373.

C Nett: Taj Vesper 268, Matt Maher 282, Louis Sneddon 285, Nigel McKenzie 285.

Congratulations to all the winners and competitors in this year’s event. Special thanks go to the organizers and helpers for their contributions and all at the Club look forward to next year’s event.

Earlier story:

Nathan Bagnall is Singleton Golf Club's A grade Champion for a record equalling 12th time.

Finishing with a score of 288, he now shares the honour of winning on twelve occasions with club legend, Roger Worms.

He was also chuffed to be celebrating his win alongside his Valley cricket mates – Rick Janssen and Matthew Maher.

With Janssen winning the B Grade (326) ahead of Reese Brinkworth (327), and Maher taking out C Grade (372) ahead of Louis Sneddon runner up (373).

Bagnall says they only play golf in between cricket seasons.

In fact last weekend he played cricket after his first round of the championships - and scored a handy 76 runs in second grade.

He would have played this Saturday but Friday’s down pour put an end to that.