Jennian Homes Waikato Winter Strokeplay

Sam Hunt has heralded his return to New Zealand strokeplay golf after completing his Bachelor of Science degree on a golf scholarship at the University of Las Vegas, with a solid five under par 67 to be the leader after the first round of the Jennian Homes Waikato Winter Strokeplay Championships at Lochiel.
In perfect conditions, Hunt gave an excellent exhibition of course management, his judgement of length and club selection impeccable.
Starting on ten he was two under at the turn, but the most significant shot of his round was a chip in on the first hole from 20 metres off the front of the green to the pin at the back of the green for eagle.
He dropped one shot on the par three third but consecutive birdies on the fifth and sixth holes has him a comfortable position on top of the leaderboard.
His putting was superb, and several long putts finished alongside the cup for "no stress" par putts. He was thrilled with the greens, firm, smooth and true - "awesome greens - a credit to the course staff" he said.
Included in his arsenal of shots were a range not seen previously from him and it was noticeable how high he now hits his approach shots to the greens.
He has a clear two shot lead over Leighton James of The Grange who started solidly from the tenth to record eight pars going out one under par and birdied both par fives coming home for a solid start and the Manor Park player Perry Hayman who also started from the tenth but recorded two bogeys, two birdies in his par first nine. But an eagle on the hardest hole on the course the 485 metre par 5 along the river bank arguably the best played hole of the day and a birdie on the last has the big hitter right in the play.

120707 Record entry for tournament but still all low handicappers

100707 New Format, New faces, Lochiel again takes its top ranked tournament to new level in 07

Warren Collett's last
Waikato
Winter Strokeplay......

Tournament Director for the past seven years, Warren Collett has tendered his resignation to the Lochiel Golf Club Board. As General Manager of the club,
he has lead an outstanding period of development and growth at
Lochiel, that the club can rightly call itself the leading club in the Waikato.

The Waikato Winter Strokeplay has been of particular interest
to Warren and together with a team of 40 enthusiastic members
have built the event into if not the most popular and best conducted 72 hole amateur tournaments then certainly one of the best.
Warren leaves with his wife Anne to take up a position with another similar forward thinking club in Cairns.

Two Waikato players are among the four players to shoot two under par rounds.
Greg Bell , who captained his Ngaruawahia team to Waikato pennants champions this year is making a return to competitive
tournament golf here for the first time in a decade. Bell,left golf to lead a band but has found the passion for golf again and hopes a solid performance backing up his pennants season will be enough to get him Waikato representative honours this year. He was stoked with his performance in the first round with two shots recovering his round. A close placement out of the sand on the testing par three 15th kept him in the game and a soft bogey on the next hole was recovered by a sensational
forty foot putt on the seventeenth hole for birdie when the greens late in the day were spiking up. He considers this to be one
of his best competition rounds of golf.

One of the favoured local golfers, representative, Jim Cusdin, had a patient day, playing solid golf throughout the more than five hours it took him to complete his round. A couple of soft bogeys from a wayward tee shot and a missed green on the fifteenth were made up by his magnificent playing of iron shots to the green. From these he nailed four birdies, but left at least another two out there as the greens tended to spike up later in the day. He said the greens held up well considering the rainfall in recent weeks and hopes they do not become muddy with the large number of players by Sunday.

Tauranga golfer Kevin Smith got to three under par after birdieing the par three 12th, but finished his round in disappointing
fashion with three bogeys. He missed two small par putts and was forced to take a drop on his penultimate hole which then landed in an average lie. He finished in a tie for twelfth on even par but looked likely to challenge the lead with six holes left to play.

Biggest surprise was the round of New Zealand and Waikato representative Richard Wright, who having started on the tenth had a horror in the middle of his round, with a triple bogey on the seventeenth hole followed by bogeying the next to be four over at the turn and he dropped two more shots on the next three holes for a six over par round of 78.

Jason Mann had a great start to the tournament with a four birdie 70. The misconceotion that he is son of rugby league legend Duane widely circulating around golf circles since he appeared in this company should be corrected here.

The players will play a second round Saturday with a seeded draw commencing at 10.00 and the 55 players with lowest scores plus ties will play two rounds on Sunday.

Leaderboard after first round played Friday 20th July
67 Sam Hunt, Rotorua
69 Perry Hayman, Manor Park
69 Leighton James, The Grange
70 Greg Bell, Ngaruawahia
70 Jim Cusdin, Horsham Downs
70 Ben Davies, Auckland
70 Jason Mann, Auckland
71 Ben Jujnovich, Redwood Park
71 Jason McIntosh, Taupo
71 Brad Stuart, Windsor
71 Ross Valentine, Remuera
71 Ewan Westergaard, Manawatu
72 Shane Bromley, Lochiel
72 Nick Gillespie, Hastings
72 Thomas Lannie, Peninsula
72 EunShin Park, Hamilton
72 Jonathan Ratcliffe, Akarana
72 Kevin Smith, Tauranga
72 Mark Smith, Springfield
73 Paul Ashton, Peninsula
73 Todd Baek, Peninsula
73 David Cooper, Lochiel
73 Gavin Cortesi, Tokoroa
73 Andrew Henare, Maraenui
73 Riki Kauika, Wanganui
73 Kieran Muir, Western Bay
73 Brendon Muller, Mt Maunganui
73 Fraser Wilkin, Auckland
74 Ormsby Barrett, Ngaruawahia
74 Steven Chung, Helensville
74 Brent Curnow, Pukekohe
74 Ben Guildford, Rotorua
74 Steven Han, North Shore
74 Brian Hoffman, Peninsula
74 Jacob Jujnovich, redwood Park
74 Bradley Kendall, Mt Maunganui
74 Aaron Leech, Lochiel
74 Josh Munn. Manawatu
74 Neelkash Ram, The Grange
74 Campbell Rawson, |
74 Scott Robertson, Remuera
74 Blair Shaw, Hutt
74 Mark Speedy, Auckland
74 Ben Wallace, Auckland
74 Scott Wightman, Muriwai