On Saturday, the event was an individual 18-hole Stableford, sponsored by the Hodges family, and was contested by a field of 62 players. Up for grabs was the Wilf Hodges Memorial Trophy, which was won this year by Geoff Coles with a very fine 42 points.

The A-division was won by Robb Webb with 38 points. Runner-up on count back was Doug Churchill. Geoff Coles easily won the B-division which had all the excitement but Frank Hanns gave good chasing with his 40 points. He held the runner-up post on count back from Clayton Alley.

The ball sweep went to 36 points on count back, with the lucky recipients being: 42 – G Coles; 40 – F Hanns, C Alley; 39 – G Webb; 38 – R Webb, D Churchill; 37 – A Borger, R Nixon, S Bate, P Grayson and 36 – H Steel-Park, D McAuliffe, J Haley, T Callaghan, R Smith, M Collits.

The NTP’s went to: 9th – J Maloy; 18th – R Taylor. We had one visitor, this being Chris Hollingworth (Joondalup, WA).

On Sunday, the Stableford Medley was contested by a small band. Colleen Bratton took the honours with 37 points, ahead of runner-up, Ray Taylor on 36. There was no ball sweep. The NTP’s went to: 9th – Jill Cripps; 18th – Ethel Coombs.

Also on Sunday, 19 players from Forbes travelled to West Wyalong for their 18-hole Open. There were also players from Temora, Grenfell, Condobolin, Wagga, Young, Lake Cargelligo and more.

The top prize, the West Wyalong Open Champion and A-grade scratch winner, went to Dan Bayley of Forbes, with a scratch score of 72. He found many different places on the course but always managed to score well.

Other Forbes players among the prize winners were: Greg Webb C-grade runner up; Peter Nixon A-grade NTP and Steve Grallelis C-grade NTP.

On Sunday, there will be a junior golf event run by Simon Houston. This will showcase some of the best junior talent around the regional areas.

By Short Putt

Forbes golfers enjoyed three days of golf last weekend with a Legends Pro-Am on Friday, Mens Stroke comp on Saturday and the Sunday Stableford Medley.

On Friday 110 players, including 32 professionals, contested the Legends Pro-Am.

The pros had a three-way tie for 1st place, with Martin Petersen (Bega), John Onions (Vic) and Bryce Mawhinney (Young) finishing on 1-under.

There were 18 clubs represented among the club players, who contested Stableford in three men’s grades and a ladies grade, as well as numerous NTP’s.

Forbes players featured well in the prizes, with Jim Carpenter (A-grade scratch), Peter Dawson (A-grade Stableford), Graham Newport (B-grade Stableford), Stuart French (B-grade Stableford runner-up) and Jenny Fletcher (ladies Stableford runnerup) all taking home prizes.

The pros found the course challenging and voted the greens the best they had played on this year. Thanks to the Forbes Shire and the many other valuable sponsors for helping to make this happen again.

Saturday was a stroke event, sponsored by B&C Autos. Many of the field of 65 had played on Friday and managed to find ways to drop shots with ease.

In the A-division, Neil McMillan took the winner’s spot with 70 nett on count back from Stuart French (70 nett). The B-division went to Andrew McDonald (67 nett) ahead of Tom Edols (68) who showed that straight and consistent can return a good score.

The ball sweep went to 74 nett on count back, with the lucky recipients being: 67 – A McDonald; 68 – T Edols, F Donohoe; 69 – B Squires, D Rhodes; 70 – N McMillan, S French; 72 – R Taylor, T Griffiths; 73 – D Bayley, P Pymont, M Collits, L Byrne and 74 – M Westwood, R Borger, P Dawson, C McMillan.

The NTP’s went to: 9th – A Borger; 18th – S Sallaway.

Sunday had the usual Stableford Medley.

The winner was Ron Morris with 37 points, feeling he was being chased by Barb Drabsch who finished on 36 points. There was no ball sweep. The NTP’s went to: 9th – Bess Shields; 18th – Barb Drabsch.