Corangamite golfers will hope to pick up their form against South Gippsland and East Gippsland today.
CORANGAMITE District Golf Association’s Country Week campaign is off to a shaky start after a day-one thrashing.
The seven-member side lost its division two opening round clash against North Eastern 6.5 to 0.5 at Altona’s Kooringal Golf Club yesterday morning.
The heavy defeat, which preceded a bye yesterday afternoon, left Corangamite on the bottom of the five-region ladder after two rounds.
It must beat South Gippsland and East Gippsland at Cranbourne Golf Club today to have any hope of finishing in the top two and being promoted to division one.
Alistair Gillan was the only golfer to take points from his contest, finishing square with Peter Miller.
Shane Gurnett lost one-down to Peter Glidden, Troy Richardson lost two-down to Charl Demink and Ash Quick went down 3-2 to Josh Hayes.
The heaviest losses came from Chris Dunn, 4-2 to Nathan Schneider, Ash Couch, 4-3 to Nathan Kungl, and Andrew Keane, 4-3 to Darren Edwards.
Mark Murnane, the eighth Corangamite golfer, will play his first contest today.
CDGA secretary John Snowden said the result was a disappointing way to start the three-day competition.
“The course was in good nick. Nothing wrong with the course, they just didn’t come up with the goods,” he said.
“There were some tight matches there. A square match could’ve gone either way and Troy Richardson and Shane Gurnett were only two down, one down.”
Snowden said the side had to battle traffic mayhem travelling from Chadstone to Altona, after VicRoads closed the Burnley and Domain tunnels yesterday morning.
But the players, and North Eastern’s representatives, arrived on time, allowing the contests to go ahead.
“At 6am I got onto the (Monash) freeway at Warrigal Road and heard on the radio the tunnels were closed,” he said.
“I knew I was the first to leave the hotel, so I called back and said ‘don’t go this way, go Dandenong Road’.”
