Maguire wins Emerald title

By Dennis Fuller
MANGO Maguire emerged champion in the Emerald Golf Club’s annual championships which concluded last Saturday. The greens were slick and the fairways true to produce a course rating of 67.
Maguire defended his A Grade and club championship title to finish with 216 strokes for the 54 holes. This left him 6 over par for the three rounds and a winner by 5 strokes from the fast-finishing Edin Selimovic whose final round of 3 over par gave Maguire a fright. Next came Martin Yeats on 244. The handicap event was won by Selimovic by one stroke over Maguire.
Skipper Rod Ward came from behind to win B Grade on 258. He wove his magic on the back nine to eclipse Dennis Fuller on 262. Next came Peter Coniglione on 268. The handicap belt went to Coniglione with Graeme Fergus in second place.
The battle for C Grade is still not over with the leading four taking under six hours to produce a tie and the need for a play-off between Andrew Tudor and Paul Thomas, each on 292. The next best was Brian Crawford on 293. The handicap trophy went to Crawford with Tudor in second place.
The daily comp in A Grade was won by Selimovic (6) with a net 67 while B Grade went to Ward (14) with 66. This gave Ward the gong overall for the day. C Grade was won by Crawford (26) also with 67.
Others to play well were Tudor on 69, Ian Scott and Peter Jones on 70 while Coniglione and Fuller both posted 71.
Nearest the pins were won by Greg Horrocks on the 7th, Selimovic the 11th, Rick Arthurson the 12th and Ward also picked up the pro-pin money on the 18th to round off a successful day.
Next week sees the play-off for C Grade while the others relax with a gentle round of stableford.