Sports reports: Corey Dahlitz’ short game comes up big
The latest from Murray Bridge's golf club, rifle club and lawn tennis association and Murray Towns cricket.
This post includes contributions from Murray Bridge Golf Club, Daniel Irvine, Graham Buttle and the Murray Towns Cricket Association.
Murray Bridge’s most talented golfing plumber has dished out a lesson to all of his rivals in winning Saturday’s par competition at the golf club.
Scoring pars on 10 of the first 11 holes was simply ridiculous for a 12-handicapper; Corey Dahlitz ended up with 14 pars overall on his way to a stunning score of six-up.
Even then he had the audacity to say that he’d “left a few shots out there”.
Well, they all say that after a great round, don’t they, so we’ll treat it as a throwaway line.
Not a noted long hitter, Dahlitz usually just keeps the ball in play and when his short game is on he can often make hay; this is what happened this time.
Well done, sir.
The field was down to just 60 for the day with many no doubt scared off by the wild weather forecast.
This did not eventuate, however, as despite some overnight rain all of the poor weather on Saturday found its up way north, leaving the players that did front in ideal conditions.
Accordingly, the scores were pretty good with several players who beat their handicaps still not rewarded with a prize at day’s end.
Paul Harding won the A grade with a strong three-up, taking out club champ Jared Thoman, who struck a handy one-up off his two handicap, although he was still not satisfied with it.
A grader and Greek god Mark Sappenberghs had a mixed day.
He started his round with an eagle two on the first hole – that’s right, a seven iron straight into the cup from 148 metres out, not one’s normal anticipated start to the day.
Being a par round Sappsy could have had four shots for a win on this hole, so the two that he had seemed a bit of a waste, but that’s golf.
It would have been five Stableford points on a Stableford day.
Anyway, his great start continued until he finished four-up, but then in his euphoria afterwards in the sprig bar forgot to sign his card and was subsequently dumped to the bottom of the scoreboard – ouch.
Adrian Pack was on song after a little while away from golf, taking out the B grade with a useful two-up.
A pretty solid player on his day, Packy didn’t need much practice to return to winning ways.
It was good to see former club manager Stephen Cocks back for a game after having joined Tailem Bend Golf Club a while ago.
He made his appearance a memorable one as he cleaned up all of his mates and was also B grade runner-up with a two-up.
It is doubtful his buddies will be inviting him back for a second hit anytime soon.
C grade southpaw golfer “Snow” Rothe was staring at a three-down front nine, wondering what he could do to improve and, probably copping some sledging from his brother “Dog”, he would have been quite annoyed.
Not sure what strategy he came up with, but it worked as he proceeded to reel off a six-up back nine – yes, correct – to finish three-up and top of the C grade tree.
What a turnaround.
There’s no need to say but this, but it also gave him an easy win in the day’s pro comp for the best back nine.
Enigmatic golfer John Barwick turned it on for a change, firing out a two-up which would have been way better but for some errant short putting, to get onto the runner’s-up dais.
Craig Mathew grabbed a ball with his two-up while Brian Smyth, Brinkley mayor Dean Pearson, marriage celebrant Dr Tom Haig and former federal parliamentarian Patrick Secker were each rewarded for their solid rounds of one-up.
Greg Lannan played in the first group of the day and his was the only name on the yabby sheet, leading from go to whoa after putting his iron shot off the tee very close to the pin on the fourth.
Get ready for a Stableford competition this Saturday and the big ham and turkey event on Sunday.
Low scores recorded on the rifle range
Only a brave few showed up at the Deed Range at Monarto on Saturday to compete from 1000 yards.
The forecast had predicted high rainfall but fortunately the rain fell to the north and shooting was able to proceed uninterrupted.
However, many finished the day perhaps wishing that we had been forced to stay indoors after all, as the wind, when combined with our longest range, proved notoriously difficult to handle.
Frank Marshall was even heard to exclaim that he was taking up golf as he got up from his less-than-satisfactory round.
The wind itself came from the right all afternoon, strong and swinging from almost square to nearly in shooters’ faces, causing changes of up to one and a half minutes in no time at all.
It did become more consistent later in the afternoon, which helped some – but not all – shooters improve on their first rounds.
That included Mark Nesti, whose second round 56.03 was a couple short of his first round 58.04, but did not stop him taking out the F-open top off-rifle award by a point from Adrian Conlon.
Nesti also won the F-class handicap by a convincing margin.
Ian Taylor made a solid improvement in his second round, moving from a 45 to a 51.03, enough to give him the F-standard off-rifle win ahead of Marshall, who could only muster a 91.03.
The situation was not any better in target rifle, though Gordon Harrison and Jasamine Irvine were both able to improve significantly on their first-round battering of 38.01 and 36.01, respectively, by scoring 46s.
“Harro” managed to claim the top off-rifle award for the day, however, with a score of only 84.04.
The low scores were an indication of how difficult the conditions were.
In target rifle, Daniel Irvine achieved a rare feat once he sorted out his elevation and wound on the correct wind direction: he won both the handicap award and also – you guessed it – the Magpie Award.
On reflection he thought he needed to shoot more twos instead of the four threes he did score if he hoped to avoid the unpopular prize.
In F-class, the dubious honour of magpie winner went to Wayne Halliday, who scored three birds over his two rounds.
Shooters will certainly hope for a kinder shoot this week from 700 metres, with most feeling they had had more than enough character-building for the time being.
Murray Bridge lawn tennis results
Juniors
Sportsmen (10 sets, 77 games) defeated Schools (five sets, 65 games); MVPs Hayden Law (Sportsmen), Emmanuel Slattery (Schools)
Banks (seven sets, 58 games) defeated Avoca (five sets, 53 games); MVPs Demi Harrington (Banks), Harry Scalzi (Avoca)
Swanport (six sets, 51 games) defeated Coorong (five sets, 52 games); MVPs Mary Scalzi (Swanport), Oliver Young (Coorong)
Pennants
Postel (eight sets, 57 games) defeated Swanport (10 games)
Sportsmen (six sets, 50 games) defeated Schools (two sets, 35 games)
Doubles
River Aces (seven sets, 55 games) defeated Swanport (two sets, 42 games); player of the match Michelle Saye
Mobilong (five sets, 47 games) defeated Twin Bridges (four sets, 43 games); player of the match Lily King
Murray Towns A grade cricket results
Wanderers 7/231 (R Morris 58) defeated Monarto 9/155
Mannum 2/290 (Z Muirhead 131*, N Lindner 106*) defeated Jervois 134 (J Boylan 5/24)
Mypolonga 8/154 (J Marston 50) defeated Tailem Bend (A Zrim 5/8)
Murray Bridge News is happy to share news, results or photos from sporting clubs throughout Murray Bridge and the surrounding region, free of charge. Email peri@murraybridge.news or call 0419 827 124.
You can help keep local stories like this one free for everyone to read. Subscribe to Murray Bridge News today and support your independent, locally owned news service, plus get access to exclusive stories you won’t find anywhere else, for just $5.50 a month.