Golf: Club champions tee off

The 2011 McDonalds Club Championships kicked off at the weekend with the first two rounds completed.

The largest field of the year took to the course Saturday and perfect golfing conditions lead to some spectacular scoring.

The standout performances for the day were an amazing nett 58 from Oliver Blümel, giving him a healthy lead in the Men’s C grade, and Lyn Lissa who continued her amazing run of form to shoot a nett 61 in the Ladies B grade.

In other sections, Darren Marlow had the lowest nett score in Men’s B grade with a 68 while the early pace setters for Men’s Champion were Jarrod Hodgins and Tim Britcliffe, who both shot a one over par 73.

Heather Mills shot 85 to lead by two strokes in the Ladies’ Championship.

Sunday morning everyone took off again and the withdrawal of Britcliffe due to work commitments left Hodgins, who is aiming for his first club championship, alone in the lead for the men’s major prize. He added a 75 to his total to take a commanding 7-shot lead into this weekend’s final round.

On the ladies side, Heather Mills added an 87 to her tally to increase her lead to nine strokes.

In the nett events, best A grade score was 68 from Jeff Shaw and major sponsor Luke Jessop rebounded with a nett 69.

Rusty Lissa fired a 67 to join first round leader Marlow atop the board in that section and in the C grade, Blümel added a 64 to his jaw dropping opening round to lead by a huge margin.

In the ladies section, Lissa continued her good form with a 68 but Aroha Brockman bounced back with a nett 66 to have the best for the day.