The Crookwell Golf Club's annual Club Championships came to a fittingly nailbiting finish on Sunday, after four days of some of the biggest fields club captain, Mark Smith, had seen.
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"It went bloody well, we had good numbers all four days," Smith said.
"We averaged just over 50 for the four days. That's phenomenal for us, compared to what we've had in the previous years. Last Sunday, on our final day, we had 30 or 28. We were ecstatic with that."
The winners across all grades are as follows:
- A Grade - Toby Johns (305)
- B Grade - Ashley Gilbert (345)
- C Grade - Tom Hannan (380)
- Junior - Ellie McCormack (144 points)
The championships were split across two weeks, with one round per day over the last two weekends.
There was some high quality golf on display, which resulted in some exceedingly close finishes across the grades.
"There was some really good quality golf," Smith said.
"A Grade was won by Toby Johns, and he went into the last day with a six-shot lead, and he ended up with a one or two shot lead with four or five shots to play.
"But he managed to hang on down to the last hole and won by a single shot."
Even more thrilling was Ashley Gilbert's B Grade win, which was decided by a four-hole aggregate playoff. So tense was the play, a sizeable crowd gathered to watch the drama unfold.
"There was probably 30-odd people who went out onto the course during the playoff," Smith said.
"They played holes one, two, six, and seven, and they had a gallery go around with them during those four holes. It was a pretty awesome environment actually, especially for a little club like ours."
After the region was inundated by persistent rain over the cooler months, the club was blessed by superb weather in the last fortnight which allowed the championships to go ahead without incident.
"We were lucky actually," Smith said.
"It's been so wet for so long, but we had really good, warm, sunny days. That was good, because the course has been really wet too, so that gave it a chance to dry out."
As the club approaches the end of the year, it has some final events scheduled which Smith hopes will prove as popular as the championships.
These get underway with the Crookburn Cup on November 20, which is played between golfers from Goulburn and Crookwell. This will be followed the next Saturday, November 27, by a Two Man Ambrose sponsored by the Jervis Bay Caravan Park, and on that Sunday, November 28, will be the Crookwell Open, which is the club's last major event for the year.
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