Bathurst Open Report
Peter Mitchell Golf NSW & James Conran
2018 Bathurst Open Champion
James Conran
Congratulations to James Conran from Orange winner of the 79th Bathurst Open for 2018 he now has qualified to play in the NSW Open care of his victory on the weekend, NSW Senior Open Qualifier’s from the event where Phillip Campbell from Bathurst Golf Club and Micheal Brislane from The Lakes GC.
Threatening weather greeted the players on Saturday with the forecast for storms in the afternoon but just a little rain and some wind was all the players had to contend with, this led to some red-hot scores coming in from the top player,there were 3 scores of 67 Nick Crews, Corey Lamb and Danial Gill and a further shot back was Bathurst Club Champion Reece Hodson and James Conran. 8 players were under par after the first round which made the feature groups separated by only 4 shots, setting the scene for a thrilling Sunday shootout.
Sunday dawned to sunny skies, the penultimate group teed off at 12:30 Oranges Robert Payne joined the Young Guns on the tee hoping to show the long hitters that sometimes straighter is better, all these players made the turn under par. News from the group behind was that James Conran was focused, and 3 under, our own Reece Hodson was 2 under as well and hitting the ball beautifully.
James Conran struck a drive on the 10th hole so far that it landed out of sight, setting up an easy birdie and extending his lead, another birdie on the 12th then drove the green on 17 and it was just a case of managing his lead to the 18th for a comfortable victory with a total of 134, Joel Shield from Young and Cory Lamb from Concord tied for 2nd on 137 and Reece Hodson finished 4th on 138. B Grade was won by Lithgow’s Micheal Hunter on 160 and Jake Davis From Bathurst GC won C Grade with 172, well done to all the Players and see you next year.
