pictured from left to right: Sir Paul Adams, Mens Winner - Luke Toomey, Womens Winner - Darae Chung, Lady Cheryl Adams
The Carrus was a huge success and a massive thanks must go out to Sir Paul and Lady Cheryl Adams for their on going support of the event which plays a huge part in the development of young golfers in the country.
There was so much to be proud of as a club member, the course was in amazing condition, the staff in the front office and kitchen were awesome and of course all the volunteers who came together to make the event a success.
It was great to see Luke Toomey win in such emphatic fashion around his adopted home course, also to see Jim (Cuzzy) Cusdin go so well as well as Tauranga’s next up and coming star Mitch Kale who had a final round 66 to finish the tournament -5 and in the top 20. Steve Williams and Dave Cooke also made the cut which is no mean feat and it is not always easy playing at your home course.
When you are playing at home there is so much more external pressure, friends and family out watching and willing you to do well and as you know the harder you try often the worse it gets. I know Cuzzy really enjoyed all the support that he received but it also added more pressure and to get his result shows just how good he is, to be able to compete with these guys with little to no practice shows his class.
The course was awesome and for those who know me know that I like statistics so here are a couple that you may find interesting. For the men the hardest hole relative to par all week was 17th, which isn’t surprising as they played it as a par 4 for the men, the average score on the hole was 4.4, with the easiest being the 6th which played on average 4.53 meaning that almost every second player made birdie. Below is a list in order of how hard they played.
| Hole | Par | Average Score | Eagles | Birdies | Bogies | Double Bogies | Rank |
| 1 | 4 | 3.92 | 1 | 74 | 45 | 5 | 15 |
| 2 | 4 | 3.99 | 2 | 65 | 44 | 12 | 12 |
| 3 | 4 | 4.13 | 0 | 55 | 45 | 23 | 7= |
| 4 | 3 | 3.09 | 0 | 38 | 60 | 4 | 9= |
| 5 | 3 | 3.33 | 0 | 22 | 95 | 16 | 2 |
| 6 | 5 | 4.53 | 9 | 151 | 26 | 3 | 18 |
| 7 | 5 | 4.93 | 4 | 90 | 44 | 14 | 14 |
| 8 | 4 | 3.98 | 1 | 70 | 48 | 10 | 13 |
| 9 | 3 | 3.25 | 0 | 24 | 86 | 9 | 3= |
| 10 | 4 | 3.84 | 4 | 96 | 28 | 14 | 17 |
| 11 | 4 | 4.25 | 0 | 41 | 52 | 26 | 3= |
| 12 | 3 | 3.06 | 0 | 42 | 47 | 8 | 11 |
| 13 | 5 | 4.85 | 10 | 114 | 35 | 20 | 16 |
| 14 | 3 | 3.20 | 0 | 27 | 86 | 3 | 6 |
| 15 | 4 | 4.25 | 0 | 36 | 78 | 17 | 3= |
| 16 | 4 | 4.13 | 0 | 38 | 50 | 13 | 7= |
| 17 | 4 | 4.40 | 1 | 10 | 102 | 17 | 1 |
| 18 | 4 | 4.09 | 0 | 36 | 47 | 10 | 9= |
| | 70 | 71.22 | 32 | 1029 | 1018 | 224 | |
Some points worth noting is the rank of a hole in a strokeplay event has nothing to do with the stroke holes on the card, they are for matchplay so please don’t look at 13 and say it is the 16th ranked hole not the hardest!
There were more birdies than bogeys but unfortunately for the players there were more doubles than eagles, with number 13 giving up the most eagles with 10. I also did see a 2 on 17 which is pretty impressive, although it cant be that hard as Jack Carter had a two on this hole once upon a time.
The second hole I think was awesome as most of the leading players were hitting driver and were able to get to the green easily, yet the hole only gave up 2 eagles all week and played pretty close to par (3.99) showing that you don’t need length to make it a great hole.
It was a slightly different story for the women see the table below, obviously a smaller field so I didn’t place the eagle and birdie numbers in but thought the toughness of the course would be of interest. Of interest though the 15th gave up the most birdies and the 13th had the most double bogies. The holes with the least birdies were 3 and 11 which gave up 4 each.
The first 6 holes were amongst the easiest for the men, where the bulk of the scoring stuff was done with the last 6 being the hardest, it was almost a complete opposite for the women with the first 6 being the hardest and last 6 being the easiest.
| Hole | Par | Average Score | Rank |
| 1 | 4 | 4.00 | 14= |
| 2 | 4 | 4.20 | 9= |
| 3 | 4 | 4.40 | 2= |
| 4 | 3 | 3.05 | 13 |
| 5 | 3 | 3.44 | 1 |
| 6 | 5 | 4.86 | 17 |
| 7 | 5 | 5.40 | 2= |
| 8 | 4 | 4.14 | 11 |
| 9 | 3 | 3.35 | 4= |
| 10 | 4 | 3.99 | 16 |
| 11 | 4 | 4.31 | 7 |
| 12 | 3 | 3.10 | 12 |
| 13 | 5 | 5.30 | 8 |
| 14 | 3 | 3.20 | 9= |
| 15 | 5 | 4.44 | 18 |
| 16 | 4 | 4.35 | 4= |
| 17 | 5 | 5.00 | 14= |
| 18 | 4 | 4.35 | 4= |
| | 72 | 74.88 | |
When it is all said and done it was a privilege to watch some pretty special golf in our back yard and has certainly inspired me to get out and play more.
Jay