Christchurch Golf Club hosted the seventh round of Woodward Cup in near perfect conditions at the business end of the season.
Christchurch continued their dominant run, remaining unbeaten after topping second placed Pegasus 5.5-2.5. Christchurch’s top three Mike Toeke, Richard Reed and Marcel Boet all had big wins, with Boet now making his move back to America for College Golf at Oregon State. They were ably supported by Josh Roche, who also achieved a hole in one on No. 7 and new member Todd Gantley. For Pegasus, Phil Stevens and Rodney Van Steenis got the wins along with Peter Brinsdon who had a half against Jason Sincock.
Templeton and Bottle Lake found themselves in a tight contest. Ryan Bellamy continued his perfect winning record for Templeton, along with wins to Mike Berry and the Wilson brothers, Tom and Rhys. The decisive game came down to the top match with Jordan Pruden and Sam Purdon, which resulted in a well fought half to end the score line at 4.5-3.5 in Templeton’s favour. Aaron Neill, Jason Campbell and Lachie Mackay all had wins for Bottle Lake.
Harewood and Russley looked to be a good match, but Russley proved too strong, prevailing 6-2 and moving them to solo fourth in the standings. Harewood’s top two Matt McLean and Josh Smith had solid wins over Hiroki Miya and Reid Hilton respectively. However Russley won all the remaining games with victories to Ben Baker, Taylor Hosking, Hayato Miya, Michael McAuley, David Kelly and Andrew Dufton.
Avondale and Weedons match was a bit tighter than the final score may imply with four games going down the last hole. Jonathan Stieller had another good win for Weedons, along with Nigel Cuthill, James Metzger, Shaun Payne and Andrew Wylie. Avondale had wins to Dan Moriarty and Tiaki Davis along with a half between Hayden Burns and Anton Focuhee which resulted in a 5.5-2.5 margin in Weedons’ favour. This win moves Weedons to sixth on the ladder and certainly in range for a finals spot with a strong finish.
Waitikiri and Coringa had a match that really could have gone either way too, with three games going down the last. But it was Waitikiri who registered their first win for the season 4.5-3.5 with Shane O’Brien, Antony Dale and Brett Turner having wins for Waitikiri, together with Ian Donaldson who picked up the clubs after a hiatus as a current selector for Canterbury Golf. Coringa had wins to Nic Kay, John Rademakers and Grant Mercer along with a half to Peter Fox who played Aaron Forsyth.
Some big milestones were reached this week with Aaron Forsyth playing his 200th Woodward Cup game, Sam Purdon playing his 100th and Tom Wilson, Matt McLean, Mike Toeke and Jordan Pruden all notching up 50 appearances.
With two rounds to go, six teams have a chance to earn a spot on finals day and with some competitive matches on the horizon, the only team guaranteed a spot at this point is Christchurch.
Next week sees the competition move to Avondale with action starting once again at 11.30am.
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