NZ OPEN Champ Brendan Jones Heading To Rich River

Brendan Jones - Golf fans will see him at his best in the PLAY TODAY NSW Open at the Rich River Golf Club.

Freshly minted New Zealand Open Champion Brendan Jones is heading to Rich River, confirming his spot in next week’s PLAY TODAY NSW Open a er exercising the exemp on on offer for taking out last weekend’s Championship.

Jones’s victory at Millbrook Resort was his first win on home soil a er a remarkable 18win career worldwide and confirma on of his start at Rich River sets the scene for a thrilling climax to the chase for top honours on the ISPS Handa PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit (OOM).

Jones’s victory brought 760 Order of Merit points, vaul ng him into second place in the season-long standings behind leader David Micheluzzi. With an exemp on into the 151st Open Championship at Royal Liverpool in July just one of the spoils for taking the OOM, Jones is no doubt keen to return to the revered Championship for the first me in ten years.

Jones credited his long- me coach, the legendary Alex Mercer, for his win and his refreshed approach to the game a er almost giving it away when COVID-19 made travel to Japan next to impossible.

“I was thinking about throwing in the towel there for a li le while, but Alex Mercer is just the greatest human I know.

“Without thinking that he’s doing much, he’s doing everything. Just spending a couple of hours with him changed my outlook on everything,” Jones told PGA Media a er his three-stroke win at the Millbrook Resort.

The inclusion of Brendan Jones complements an already strong field, which already boasts several past winners, including defending champion Harrison Crowe, and 2017 champion and European Tour regular Jason Scrivener.

Several other players have been added to the field, including former PGA Tour player Ma hew Goggin, former NSW State team player and current Japan player Dylan Perry, and St.Michael’s John Lyras, who has got his Asian Tour off to a flying start following

Last weeks runners-up finish to Jones in New Zealand

In the Order of Merit race, Micheluzzi s ll leads; however, Jones’ win saw the Canberran jump into second place. Lyras’ runnerup finish in Queenstown elevated the St. Michael’s gun up 28 spots from 40th to 12th and within reach of the top ten.

ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit (through NZ Open)

1. David Micheluzzi 1,031.67 (13)

2. Brendan Jones 803.67 (2)

3. Cameron Smith 772.76 (2)

4. Andrew Mar n 652.13 (12)

5. Tom Power Horan 609.23 (12)

6. Michael Hendry 528.01 (6)

7. Min Woo Lee 470.00 (2)

8. Adam Sco 456.05 (2)

9. Deyen Lawson 446.46 (13)

10. Jason Scrivener 431.30 (3)

Must play a minimum of four events to qualify for the Order of Merit The Men’s NSW Open Golf Championship is proudly supported by the NSW Government through its tourism and major events agency Des na on NSW.

Narooma Men’s Bowls; Social Bowls Winners’ Circle

On Wednesday we had a good turnout of 48 bowlers with winners decided by Lowest Winning Margin and this week the winners were Mick Cavic, Darrell Goodridge and Neville Bu (skip) who were down seven to nine a er 11 ends and the game remained ght right to the last end where they picked up a shot for a 16 to 15 win against Peter Hawker/Warren Bender, Neville Cork and John Downie (skip). Second place went to Jon King, Barry Goodwin and Terry Lewis (skip) who were all square at 10 all a er 11 ends before edging clear for a 20 to 15 win against Peter Fennell, Ian Jorgenson and Col Armstrong (skip). The first res ng toucher went to John Voytas who showed his consistent good form to rest on the jack at 1.05. Well done John. Thank you to Rapley and Son, Narooma Plaza, for their con nued support.

On Sunday we had two rinks of pairs and a rink of triples and the winners, decided by Lucky Rink, were Olwyn Mayer and Enid Brooker (skip) who had a close game early before they drew clear for a 25 to 17 win against Clare Cork and Pat Barklem (skip).

Minor Singles Championship

There was one match played this week with Jim Constan taking Peter Hiscox. In a ght match early on Peter had the upper hand , leading nine to two a er six ends and 14 to 11 a er 14 ends. Jim then got into top gear and won the next 10 ends and went on to take the match 25 to 15.

Pennant Results

Round 4 of the Pennant Compe on was played this week with our Grade 5 team Playing Braidwood at Braidwood. Results were: Grade 5, Narooma won 10 points to 0, 89 shots to 37 – Peter Dillon, Rob Coulson, Jeremy Seaton and Greg Ryan (skip) won 37 to seven; Margaret Naylor, John Voytas, Tony Palmer and Dave Herman (skip) won 18 to 16; and Les Waldock, Gail Howe, John Sco and Keith Picke (skip) won 34 to 14. In Grade 6 Narooma v Tomakin, Narooma won 91/2 points to 1/2, 70 shots to 56. Results were: Barry Goodwin, Baxter Smith Vicki Herman and Terry Lewis (skip) drew 21 shots all; John Redman, Rhys Budnick, Sandra Breust and John McNamara(skip) won 27 to 18; and Mick Cavic, Jim Constan, John Downie and Peter Jones (skip) won 22 to 17.

Moruya Women’s Golf Results

Wednesday, 8th March

A reduced field of 19 player’s par cipated in this week’s Stableford round, which again saw some fine scores recorded.

Division 3’s Joan Hosking (right) took out 1st place, for the third me in as many weeks, with an enviable 36 ne on C/B.

Runner-up Jenny Ellis, also has been playing consistently good golf, finished with 36 ne .

Place Ge ers:

L Doolan (34 C/B), S Noy (34 C/B), J Lumsden (34), N Cowdroy (33 C/B), B Kennedy (33).

Eurobodalla Tennis Ladies Competition results

Today was fabulous weather for ETLC competition tennis. Right are Bay Waves and Bay Breeze Division 2 teams who played off each other with Bay Waves coming out winners with a 5 sets to 3 result.

Other winning teams across Division 1 were, Bay Babes vs Moruya Blues: 7 sets to 1

Narooma vs Tuross with a strong 8 sets win. Other Division 2 teams that won were:

Tomakin vs Flamingos 7 sets to 1

Broulee Brolgas vs Naroona Gold 5 sets to 3

Tomkatz vs Moruya Swans had a very close win 4 sets all and only 2 games the difference to win.