Palm Grove tournament a close contest

Following close results in the second round of the Palm Grove tournament at Rarotonga Golf Club, the final round promised to be a nail-biter.

There were playoffs and count-backs in many of the divisions last Saturday.

Some of these playoffs and count-backs featured players who were not among the leaders after two rounds so it was even better for those who witnessed the end of the day’s play.

In the senior men’s division, the leaders from the 2nd round, Haimona Browne and Ned Howard, had to settle for 2nd and 3rd place, respectively, on a count-back after Daniel Webb saved his best round for last.

Webb carded a 71 off the stick to finish with a total of 220 – three strokes ahead of Haimona and Ned.

In the senior ladies’ division, last week’s leader Kurai Foster had her worst round of the three while Alice Pilkinton had her best round of 79 off the stick to capture first place ahead of Kurai by 1 stroke.

In the intermediate men’s division, leader Tere Taio slipped badly after a not-so-good round but managed to hold on to 1st place from Tuakana Marukore who came home with ‘a withering run’ carding a 76 off the stick to take 2nd place on a count-back from Cedric Toru.

The junior A men’s division featured a three-way playoff between Tingika Elikana, Darrel Brown and Walter Tangata who all finished with a total of 258.

The result was a win for Walter Tangata with Darrel Brown taking 2nd and Tingika Elikana 3rd.

Leader in the junior B men’s division Vae Unuka was able to increase his lead to easily finish first while young Myles Taio slipped back to 3rd behind Katoa Banaba on a count-back.

Ake Unuka held onto her lead in the intermediate ladies after she and Jackie Urlich, who maintained her 2nd position, finished with a 91 for the day.

Memory Akama surrendered her 6 shot lead from the second round and eventually lost the playoff against her closest rival Moeroa Turua.

Vets leader Riiti Mamanu surrendered his 2 shot lead over Archie Moana.

Both players had a round which they were not happy with but Archie’s round was ”less worse“ (as Captain Don Silk would say) and he finished as the winner by 1 stroke.

This was a great tournament and fulfilled its promise.

Golfers are extremely grateful to the generous supporter of golf and the Rarotonga Golf Club, Palm Gove, courtesy of Betsy Eisler.

Today is a normal Club Sweep day ahead of the Michigan Motors shoot-out on June 23. Calcutta tickets are on sale at the club and the auction of players will be held at the club on Thursday June 28.

Good luck to all golfers.