BERWICK MONTUNA GOLF
Mark Clydesdale fired his third successive 72 on Sunday to run away from the field and claim his third Berwick Montuna Golf Club Open Championship.
After a first-round one-under-par 68, Clydesdale’s four-round total of 284 saw him finish a whopping 18 shots ahead of defending champion Dean Baker (302). Another former champion in Michael Reid was five shots back on 307 after a disappointing final round of 80.
With no-one mounting a serious challenge, the contest was effectively over after nine holes on Sunday when Clydesdale turned in 36 (two over par) to Baker’s 40. Things only got worse for the defending champion when he took a triple bogey seven on Berwick Montuna’s tough 10th hole to Clydesdale’s par.
Clydesdale was never under pressure from that point, chalking up pars on the first five holes of the back nine before dropping a shot at 15, getting it back on the short 16th with birdie, then dropping another shot on the 17th.
Daniel Birchall, 20, produced one of the real highlights of the weekend by scoring a rare hole-in-one on the par-four opening hole. But his 76 for the round wasn’t quite good enough to snare the three-round junior championship, with 16-year-old Mitch Jamieson securing that honour after rounds of 76, 79 and 77. Mitch also claimed household bragging rights by pipping his father, Colin, by one shot in the open championship to finish in a tie for fifth place with another youngster, Bradley McGill.
The B-Grade title went to Michael Nicholas, whose rounds of 77, 77, 80 saw his handicap drop two shots from 13 to 11 over the course of the three-round championship.
First-round leader Sean Campbell couldn’t quite match his impressive form over the first two rounds (76, 79) to finish five shots back on 239 after carding 84 in the final round. Sixteen-year-old Bailey Clapton was another two-shots adrift after closing with 85.
Grant Shelton fired a three-round total of 267 to take the C-Grade championship by three shots from Michael Wilson.
Meanwhile Melinda Crawford repeated her victory in the ladies’ championship of 2013, to run away with the title this year after rounds of 80, 84 and 85. Husband Shane wasn’t to be outdone, securing the club senior championship with a three-round total of 237 after closing with an impressive 76.
