With the withdrawal of top visiting amatuer Brian Falafel, and with local hero Steve Punch knocked out in the qualifiers, the door was wide open to the 70 remaining golfers eager to get off to a strong start in the two round event.

Played under handicap stroke conditions, it was the unpopular club nuisance Jon Ford who made the best start, being two under after five holes.

However, like a poisoned weed, he wilted to finish two over for a respectable nett 67.

Of the chasers, fitness guru Markus Fenwick, the gifted Andrew Adams and the hard talking David Hussey were all within striking distance.

The winner though would come from the C Grade rankings, with Peter Parry fending off the challengers while blitzing the back nine, to finish with a nett 66.

Fenwick and Hussey only managed nett 68's, with Adams on 69.

The second round will be played on April 6.

Despite the suggestion her surname offers, Jeanette Curley hit the ball straight all day to win the Women's Stableford on March 19.

Curley was the only player to better her handicap, her 37 points two ahead of Julie Maloney with Joe Wolf keeping the rest of the field at bay with 34.

The four person Scramble Ambrose event was the feature of the weekend's golf with 76 players registering, with the winning foursome to receive an Odyssey putter and other prizes for the runners up.

In a highly competitive day's golf, the team of David Hussey, Mick Wallace, Glenn Harrington and Shirhan Ho topped the leaderboard, each winning the putter and nudging out the in-form Andrew Adams and Peter Parry who had teamed up with Wesley Adams and Kris Narayan.

In other highlights, the club's unluckiest golfer Iain Battersby finally had a change of fortune with a nearest the pin win on the sixth hole.

Stroking his eight iron with skill and precision, Battersby put his shot to 99cm of the pin and in doing, so won dinner for two at Dormie House.