Karratha Open a closely fought contest

The Pilbara’s best golfers converged on Karratha Golf Club to take their shot at winning the club’s premier annual event at the weekend.

The Karratha Open drew a strong field of 112 players from Karratha, Tom Price, Exmouth, Port Hedland, Newman, Pannawonica and Perth to compete across several grades at the two-day event.

Conditions were ideal on Saturday but strong winds on Sunday were a challenge for golfers and impacted on scores.

In the A-grade division, the male and female champions for the competition were both Karratha locals — Tyson Bertrend, who recorded a gross score of 145 points, and Sunan Ong-Arch who scored 156 points.

The net winners for the grade were Chris Stewart (142 points) and Marie Nottle (143 points).

The men’s B, C, and D grades were won by Ken Willcocks (77 points), Adam Ross (75 points) and Wayne Hanson (75 points) respectively.

Lisa Andersen was the women’s B-grade winner with 77 points.

Karratha Golf Club president Gary Rayson said the event had been hard-fought and produced some great results, with Bertrend’s Saturday score having set a new record for the redeveloped golf course.

“All the grades were very competitive — the ladies A-grade was the only grade in which there was a bit of gap between the winner and the field, but the rest of the grades were all very closely fought,” he said.

Mr Rayson said the reintroduction of a sponsor day on the previous Friday to thank the event’s supporters had also been a highlight.