In the swing

Striking: Sgt Craig Corrigan tees-off on the first round of the 2004 ADF National Golf Championship. Photo by Pte Shannon Joyce, Army newspaper.

By Pte Luke Knights

TWO Army golfers contested a head-to-head tussle for .rst place on the last round of the ADF National Golf Championships in Canberra.

Fellow Townsville competitor Cpl Steven Rotherham, 5 Avn Regt, took the ADF title by 5 shots from Pte Damian Jordan, 2RAR, shooting a par round of 72 against 79, in the titles in December.

The pair led the field of service competitors throughout a day of trying weather conditions.

Tournament Director Wg-Cmdr Trevor Owens said the daily dose of bad summer electrical storms played havoc with the tournament timings, and had players scattering from the course to safety several times on four of the .ve days of the event.

“This was the worst year yet for uncooperative weather in the 20-year history of the event and it kept the Tournament Match Committee busy with some important decisions regarding continuance of play,” he said.

“In the last round, almost 80 players left the course at one o’clock and were not able to return until well after .ve, the last groups then finishing almost on dark.”

As the first round got under way during good conditions, Pte Jordan held the tournament lead after the .rst three rounds with scores of 72, 70 (2 under) and 77.

This was a two-shot lead over Cpl Rotherham, with Navy’s five-time Champion Leut Andrei Ezergailis, HMAS Sheahan, some eight shots adrift, and Air Force’s Cpl Craig Melville, 2OCU, a further five shots back.

Cpl Melville and Leut Ezergailis kept up play to emerge as their service champions, though the last round was close to abandonment.

Wg-Cmdr Owens said such an act would have denied the eventual ADF Champion, a much-deserved win.

In other tournament categories, Army was Service Champions with Queensland players taking out the State Teams Championship.

The 2005 event has been scheduled for December 5-9, and information packages and entry forms will be released in early July through ADF Golf Association regional representatives, and on the web site http://www.sportscentreoz.com/adfgaindex.htm