Pro-Drive Hamilton Men’s Waikato Masters - Waikare Golf Club
The annual Pro-Drive Hamilton Men’s Waikato Masters were held on Saturday 8th August at the Waikare Golf Club. The event was two rounds played over one day with morning and afternoon sessions. This year’s competition drew a record amount of interest with over 150 entries that were then cut down by lowest handicap to 96 competitors.
Rain started to fall as the first groups were teeing off but by 9am the skies had cleared, and the sun was shining. The course was in immaculate condition however, tricky pin placements and quick greens made low scores hard to come by. After round one Thai Leng (Remuera) was the club house leader with a score of one under par 69. Right on his heels on even par 70 was Martin Tumata (Onewhero) and Kyle Moore (Walton). Stephen O’Reilly (Muriwai), Roy Hollick (Pakuranga) and Dave Izzard (Muriwai) were all in the hunt as well after scoring one over par 71.
In the Nett Medal competition Kyle Moore took a first round lead with a nett score of 67. Closely behind him was Dave Izzard on nett 69 and both Owen Allison (Riverside) and Paul Johns (Waikare) on nett 70.
After some much-needed food and water the men were back out on the course ready for round two. Stephen O’Reilly shot another 71 to finish third with a combined score of 142. Rob Simmonds (Windross Farm) improved on his morning round of 74 by 7 shots to card a best round of the day 67 and a combined score of 141 to take second place. First place was taken out by the 2007, 2008 and 2012 winner from the Onewhero golf club, Martin Tumata. He shot a second round 68 after an albatross on the par 5 1st hole and an eagle on the par 5 3rd hole to win by 3 shots with a combined score of 138. He now becomes the only player in the events history to record four victories. Although the shield will head north for the year, it was a good day for the Waikato with six players making up the top 10 in the gross competition.
In the nett competition Waikato representative player Wybo Veldman took out first place with nett scores of 71 and 72 to beat Michael Bone (Waitakere) by 2 shots.
