Bonnar Cup side keep finals alive with close victory

Report by Wayne Humphries
(Team Manager)

The Bonnar Cup side kept their finals aspirations alive on Sunday in a match that we expected to win – but we had to use our “Get out of jail card” to secure the narrowest of wins.

Sam Hynes and Henry Duregon came in to the team to replace David Hiern and Will Starkey who had been promoted to Simpson Cup. Both Sam and Henry grabbed their opportunity to record big wins – well done lads.

After nine holes all was going reasonably to plan – we were ahead in 4 games, square in one game and just one down in the other two games. However, the Royal Adelaide boys stuck to their task and it took Luke Bashford to hole a tricky twelve foot putt on the last hole for us to secure the win, four matches to three. Bash knew our season was on the line and the putt looked in all the way – well done Bash.

Our Final aspirations are now still on track – whilst we are currently in 3rd spot behind Grange and Kooyonga, these two teams play each other this week which gives us the opportunity to either get ahead of Kooyonga or draw level with Grange – it will be vitally important for us to record two strong wins in the last two rounds in case it comes back to games and holes won to decide the final two teams.

Our winners were:                 

• Henry Duregon at number seven. He birdied two of the first four holes to establish an early lead and turned five up after nine to eventually win 6/5. Great effort Henry and well done.
• Sam Hynes, at number four, played steady golf all day. Three up after nine, he went on to win 4/3.
• Luke Bashford at number two – Luke recovered from a strong start by his opponent – Luke was three down after four but Luke maintained his composure to win four of the next five holes to turn one up. The second nine was a real battle with Luke mainly holding a one up advantage. Playing the last hole (the 9th) he was still one up but sprayed his tee shot way right, was fortunate to get a GUR drop (albeit still in a horrible spot amongst trees and bushes), played a masterful shot for his second back on to the fairway and then speared a mighty four iron on to the right edge of the green, some 40 feet from the hole – meanwhile his opponent had played a strong tee shot right up the middle and was looking to hit his second on to the par five green, but caught the green side bunker, played a nice bunker shot to 20 feet. Luke putted to some twelve feet past the hole and after his opponent missed his birdie putt, Luke was left to hole his to win his game and to secure the match for Glenelg – a great roar went up from the Glenelg boys watching as the ball disappeared in to the hole. We could sense the groans from the Tea Tree Gully and Kooyonga boys who were watching as they realized their final aspirations were now just that little more difficult!
• Lee Cole at number one – Lee responded to the challenge of playing in the number one position by playing consistently to be one up after nine and eventually winning 3/2. Another “got the job done” effort from Lee.   

We lost two matches one down:

• James Brown (Boom) at number five against David Cherry. This was an absorbing tussle all day with the match all square after nine – Boom was one up playing 16 (the 7th) and lipped out his birdie putt from 21 feet only for Cherry to hole his 20 footer to again square their game. Still square playing the last Boom had a tricky four foot left to right curler which would have resulted in a “fair” halved game but unfortunately the putt took way too much borrow to leave Boom one down.
• Matty Mudford at three had a mixed round – he got out to a two up lead after four but then dropped three holes to be one down after nine, but then fought back to be one up after 14, only to drop a couple of holes to be one down playing the last. He almost holed his chip for eagle on the last only to miss his birdie attempt from ten feet to stay one down.

Michael Ratajewski, at number six, was one down after nine but could not match his opponent on the back nine to lose 5/4 to record his first loss for the season.     

Thanks again to all caddies for their support to the players.

The challenge continues!…………..we take on North Adelaide at Blackwood next Sunday at 12.10pm from the 10th tee, whilst Kooyonga and Grange do battle. We just have to keep on winning!

Results

Glenelg (4) defeated Royal Adelaide (3)

(1) Lee Cole def. Tom Cooper 3/2
(2) Luke Bashford def. Jon Cherry 1 up
(3) Mat Mudford lost to Michael Cherry 1 down
(4) Sam Hynes def. James Wallman 4/3
(5) James Brown lost to David Cherry 1 down
(6) Michael Ratajewski lost to Alex Borg 5/4
(7) Henry Duregon def. Michael Craig 6/5

Table

To view full results of Bonnar Cup round 5, click here.