The Lakes had made it through to the semi finals this past weekend and we were playing the strong outfit from Avondale at Manly Golf Club. A well fought, close contest unfortunately didn’t go our way with Avondale getting a 5-3 win.
Adrian Marafioti started the day by losing the first hole to a birdie. He then won the next 3 holes in a row to make the turn 2 up. Continuing the solid golf on the back nine, he was able to close out the match 3/2.
James Hawkes played par golf on the front nine to turn 3 up. Then his opponent rallied and won a couple of holes but the charge was stopped fortunately by James as he went on to hole out from a green-side bunker and also draining a long winding putt from off the green two holes later to win comprehensively 5/4.
Gavin Lesnie was 2 under the card and 2 up after 6 holes and then some very good up and downs from his opponent narrowed the gap. A missed short slippery down hill putt on the 10th hole was costly for Gavin who then followed it up by a missed green. This meant that he was dormie 4. A good up and down from the bunker sent the match down the 16th hole, although another classy up and down for par from his opponent closed out the match 4/2. A close match that just slipped away.
The Top 3 in our team struggled this week against some opponents which were just too good on the day.
Mark Leo was 4 down with 6 to play and mounted a mini comeback by winning two holes in a row. Unfortunately his opponent made birdie on the 15th to take it to dormie 3 and closed it out on 16th to win their match 3/2.
Both Oscar and Jason came up against opponents who shot under par rounds and were just too strong on the day.
I was 1 down after the first hole but managed to hold on and turn 2 up through nine. I remained up for the rest of the match closing it out on the 17th to win 3&1.
Allen Rodrigues was the last man standing and needed a win to force a draw. He was 4 down after 10 holes. Never giving up he fought back to be all square after 17 and took it down the last. His opponent made a great birdie from the 17th fairway to win the match on the 18th hole, 1 up. This added to the total score of the day 5-3.
Avondale were just too good on the day and they deserved this win.
Thanks to all the team for a great year. I greatly enjoyed it.
Team Manager
Daniel Deverich.