Dale Turner joined a rare group on Saturday when he achieved concurrent ownership of the Penrith Golf Club Championship and Match Play Championship titles with an emphatic Match Play victory over Anthony Hunter.
Turner claimed his first Club Championship last October and on Saturday won the Match Play Championship for the third time in four years with his 9&8 defeat of Hunter in the 36-hole decider.
As a newly-minted senior golfer, having turned 50 last month, Turned also led a grey power charge through the finals, where he was joined by Colin Neill (A Reserve) and Blair Stott (B Grade) as Match Play champions. Only Daniel Fenech prevented a senior sweep when he triumphed over Peter Maiden, another senior, in the C Grade final.
Throughout the playoffs, the unpredictability of match play was never more evident.
In the first round of the top flight, and with the second seed and defending champion Michael Organ, third seed Ben Clements and fourth seed Chris Lawler already eliminated, Turner had to hole a four-metre putt on the 18th hole to square his match before prevailing on the 20th hole over Master Pennant representative Eric Banguis
In A Reserve, top seed Troy Byron, second seed Scott Basket and fourth seed Terry Saunders were first round casualties.
The lower grades were dominated by the higher seeds, but by no means comfortably. In B Grade, No.1 Blair Stott and No.3 Craig Coulter won through to the final after surviving opening round skirmishes, Stott taking 20 holes to see off Philip Rashleigh and Coulter taken to the 19th by Richard Hoff.
The first round of C Grade matches went with the seedings before No.4 Daniel Fenech took out top seed Gavin Churton in the semis and then No.2 Peter Maiden in the final.
Neill and Graeme Howland were square at the turn before Neill pulled away on the back nine to win 4&3 and claim the A Reserve crown, adding it to his 2023 Top Gun title.
Craig Coulter led the B Grade final 1up at the turn before Stott surged through to a 3&2 victory.
Hunter entered the Championship final on the back of two really gritty performances. In the first round he trailed Ben Clements three down after four holes before grinding down the No.3 seed to win on the 19th hole.
The semi-final against Lloyd Rodger was remarkable. Rodger won the 18th hole to force Hunter into extras for a second week. Then, the 19th hole was halved before a 45-minute delay due to lightning. The grind continued after the restart before Hunter claimed the match on the 24th hole.
Turner, in contrast, cruised to a 7&6 semi-final win over Ben Keane and went out a prohibitive favourite in the final. But any complacency was put to bed when a fast-starting Hunter led 3-up through five holes.
Turner was slow out of the blocks but clicked into gear at the par-three 7th hole, where his tee shot one-hopped into the flagstick and settled less than a metre from the hole.
Turner won three of the next four holes to gain the lead for the first time at the 11th. He pushed on to 3- up after 18 holes, but till no sure thing against the resilient Hunter. That all changed when Turner delivered the killer blow, going 4-up at the 20th and then making four consecutive birdies from the 21st hole.
Turner won the 27th to be nine up before the 28th hole was halved to complete his 9&8 victory.
