In the Scolari Comerford Dubbo Open on Sunday over 27 holes, Matt Gleeson shot 67-38 (105) and won by one from Pat Wilson 71-35 (106) with David Gleeson 72-35 (107) not far away.

Matt this week returned to Sydney and his job working in the pro shop at Oatlands with former Dubbo professional Steve Aisbett, to practice with the NSW Golf Institute of Sport and have a lesson at The Australian Golf Club.

He’s confident that if he can get his putting in order, he can retain the Matchplay title against his father.

“I don’t think we’ve played against each other in matchplay before, so I’m looking forward to it,” Matt said.

“Dad played fairly well on Sunday and over 36 holes anything can happen.”

Matt admitted on Sunday in the Dubbo Open that he “didn’t hole a putt all day”.

“It was fairly frustrating and it was all through putting. I’ve had a putting lesson on Monday and am just about there with some swing correction, so it’s starting to come together.

“I actually turned one over par on my first nine on Sunday after double bogie on 15 and another on 17 but pulled it back with four under on my last nine, the 19-27 layout.”

After a successful campaign playing for NSW in the Australian Teams Championships, Gleeson headed to Canberra for the Federal Open on the long weekend, but again his putter let him down.

“I shot three over, four over and missed the cut but when you have 40 putts you’re never going to achieve much,” he said.

“I aim to break the 30 mark each round, but of course that didn’t happen, so it was back to the drawing board.”

In the A grade handicap on Sunday Bernard Gooch had a great day with 65-35 (100) and won by half a shot from Jason Ford with 79 and 31-1/2.

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The Dubbo Open B grade title was a real shootout with Adam Nissen coming through with 82-40 for 122, one in front of Brett Wrigley who matched the winner with 82 in the morning round but went one worse on the way home for 123.

Handicap saw Jason Hildred (103), Peter Tremble (105) and Darren Scholes (1-5-1/2) fill the top three places.

Biggest win on the day came in C grade when Paul Houston shot 88-45 (133) to finish six ahead of Shane Groen 95-44 (139).

There was also a big margin in C grade handicap after Howard Woodbridge delivered cards of 70 and 32-1/2 (102-1/2) to leave Kerry Fields (108-1/2) and Bruce Sotheron (109) for the minor prizes.

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A number of Dubbo RSL members also played on Sunday, over 18 holes, with Ben Rutley (79) and Craig Wood (81) best in scratch, while Ian Wheeler (99-67) and Jamie Forrester (83-71) dominated handicap.

Thanks to the wonderful sponsorship from Peter Scolari and Phil Comerford, there were plenty of nearest to the pin prizes on all the par-3 holes as well as long drives on holes 7, 17 and 22.

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Saturday’s aggregate stableford in Dubbo club golf saw two great scores at the top of the leaderboard, headed by Graeme Ferguson and Phil Munro with 42 points each and 84 in total.

Both must have played very well and to come up with a score like that leaves the rest of us in awe.

Course staff Ross Horrocks and Michael Wherritt gave it a big shake and were the morning leads with 83 points, Ross having 42 points and Michael 41.

However on this occasion for the Graincorp trophies, they had to be content with second place.

Great to see David Bourne back in the winner’s circle. This man of steel has worked his way back to good health over a long time but his 42 points to win the individual prize on Saturday was no mean feat, although he did have to survive a countback.

The nearest to the pins were all close with the winners being 8th Franz Schubert 289cm; Mick Dunn 82cm; Bill Latta 1300cm; 26th: Bernard Kennedy 92cm; Daniel Brock 246cm; Jim Ball 70cm.