26 Aug 2019 at 14:19 | Published by: PatPenguin | Views: 16938 | News search

Tauranga - Round Eight of the 2019 Putting Tour was played on August 24th what a success. Twelve players took on the very challenging Golf 360 course in warm but windy conditions and no surprise that the infamous 18th hole provided more frustration and drama.

Round One started at a good pace and James McCarthy set the early pace with some outstanding play on the front nine. Murray Cramp was playing and looking to improve his position on the overall leaderboard. Lele Rhodes Talagi and Sonny Natanielu were playing the course for the first time and adapted to the course quickly and provided their usual encouragement to all players. Andrew Harrison and Michael Carpenter were also there providing their usual humour and positive attitude to minigolf. Darren Prole, Paul Kerrigan, James McCarthy, Faye Ansley, John Ansley and Matt Ansley all went down a day early to be fully prepared. Of course the NZ Open champion and man to beat Cameron Couper was there looking to add another win in 2019.

McCarthy finished round one with an impressive 42, 24 under the course par of 66. Couper finished with a 46, Harrison and Matt Ansley had 47 with Ansley taking a 7 on the infamous 18th.

Round 2 saw more aces starting to flow and players learning the course quickly. Matt Ansley bounced back from his disappointment on 18 to shoot 41 and finish 2 behind McCarthy who had a 44. Prole had a fantastic 44 in round 2 to climb to 4th equal with John Ansley.

Round 3 saw some high scores creeping in everywhere apart from Couper who started showing his class and finished with a 43. McCarthy and Ansley Jr both took fives on the 18th and finished round 3 tied on 135 with Couper back in third on 137.

Round 4 saw Ansley Jr. take a lead after 7 holes only for McCarthy to ace 8 and then 9 in the shot of the tournament to draw back to level with 9 holes to go. Ansley pulled ahead by 2 after 14 only for McCarthy to come back and draw level with two holes to go. Ansley managed a 3 on 17 and unfortunately McCarthy took a 4. Playing first on 18, Ansley was very nervous over his putt up the hill for two and he made it...just. McCarthy still had a chance if he could somehow ace the 18th and gave it a very worthy effort only for the ball to roll over the cup.

The next event is on Saturday September 21 at Enchanted Forest Mini Golf with a 2pm tee-off.

Thank you to the New Zealand Minigolf Federation for this article.

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