A five-way playoff was needed to decide the Golf Illawarra Champion of Champions and the District Championship at the Links Shell Cove last Sunday.
Paul Fairall from The Vale, Danny Nesbitt and Thomas Holz from the Links Shell Cove, Mark Johnston from Shoalhaven Heads and Wil Daibarra of Kiama all carded one over par 71 on a day where conditions for scoring were almost perfect.
The five was quickly whittled down to when Fairall and Nesbitt both played the three-hole aggregate in one under par. The first sudden-death hole was halved in bogeys, with a par good enough on the second hole for Fairall to claim both titles.
Almost 40 golfers took part in the tournament with winners in the B Grade C Grade and Junior Titles coming from across the district.
Hayden McKay of Port Kembla shot a fine score of 82 which was adjusted to 83 to win the B grade title by five shots from The Grange’s Kim Murphy 88, who beat Brian Wilson of Kiama on a countback for the runner-up spot.
Brian Bennett from Jamberoo was the winner of C grade with a score of 91. Michael Tuite from the host club also returned 91 and Paul Ryan from The Grange 92 but both had their scores adjusted up to 95 and 94 respectively after reducing their handicaps during the year to well below the lower limit of C grade. This meant that Kiama’s Dean Moore took out the runner-up spot on 93.
Bradley Wills of The Links Shell Cove kept his run of good form going, winning the junior Champion of Champions title for 2018. His score of 77 was good enough to take the honours by two from Kiama’s Eddie Ward.