Trophy winners, from left, Derek Wright, Darren Masterton and Keith Wright.
GOLF
OSBORNE players Darren Masterton and Scott Meek went head to head in the IW Golf Union’s singles’ matchplay final last weekend.
The players, who are the last two IW champions were locked in an epic battle, with excellent golf throughout including some big-hitting drives in excess of 300 yards as well as accurate iron shots peppering the pins.
The early holes were exchanged between them leaving the match all square after six holes.
Darren took the lead at seven when Scott found an unplayable lie and had to drop.
Darren moved two ahead for the first time in the match at the ninth hole when a par was good enough to win.
Scott came back at the tenth with a par win of his own but dropped back again at the next when Darren birdied and at the 12th, Scott found sand from the tee and went three down. The 13th saw both hit their approach shots within 3ft of the hole while Scott managed to make progress back into the match with another birdie at 14.
However, the next three holes were halved in par to give Darren the title 2&1.
The union’s mixed foursomes final between John Crosbie and Liz Morris, of Freshwater Bay, and Mark Roberts and Sue Wittig, of Osborne, was far more clear-cut.
The Osborne pair started strongly and won the first four holes with some steady play and an excellent birdie at the fourth.
But the Freshwater duo came back with some good golf of their own over the rest of the front nine and managed to claw back the deficit to turn at just one down.
From the tenth, John and Liz really found their game and they managed to reel off four straight wins of their own to put themselves into a commanding three hole lead after the 13th. The match eventually concluded 4&3 in favour of the Freshwater duo.
Meanwhile, the fourball final was an all-Freshwater affair with club secretary Kev Garrett and his partner, Kev McArthur, playing brothers, Derek and Keith Wright, on their home course.
Both pairs played well throughout the match but a run of excellent scores from the eighth hole by Keith Wright proved to be decisive in the match.
His returns of birdie, birdie, (lost ball), eagle, eagle, birdie from holes eight to 13 were enough to keep the opposition at bay but it was testament to the standard of golf from both teams that the match still went all the way to the final hole, with the Wright brothers just doing enough to take the trophies.