PAKENHAM Golf Club’s tight and tricky layout lived up to its ‘sleeping giant’ tag, proving a tough opponent for some of the state’s top professional golfers at the Burden’s Pakenham Invitational last Friday.
Not one of the quality 29-man field – including the in-form Ash Hall and local-favourite Scott Laycock – could break par, with eventual winner Euan Walters shooting a one-over par 72 in cold, unseasonable conditions.
Walters scored a two-shot victory over Laycock, Josh Shaw and Kevin Booker, another local professional well-accustomed to the vagaries of the Pakenham course.
The career-highlight for the 46-year-old Walters came at the 2004 Jacobs Creek Open at the Kooyonga Club in Adelaide.
Victory in the co-sanctioned event earned him playing rights on the lucrative Nationwide Tour in America, where he finished 14th on the money list to earn PGA Tour status in 2005.
The Jacobs Creek Open, formerly the South Australian Open, has been won by some of the greats of Australian golf including Peter Thomson (1968), Peter Senior (1979), Greg Norman (1986-‘96), Brett Ogle (1992) and Craig Parry (1999).
International stars Guy Wolstenholme (1971), Ronan Rafferty (1987), Gordon Brand Jnr (1988) and superstar Nick Price (1989) also adorn the trophy.
Walters now plies his trade at the Riversdale Golf Club in Melbourne.
Burden’s Pakenham Invitational Leaderboard
Euan Walters +1 72
Scott Laycock +3 74
Josh Shaw +3 74
Kevin Booker +3 74
Aaron Cox +4 75
John Wade +4 75
Ruben Lal +4 75
Ashley Hall +5 76
Robert Emond +5 76
Andrew Kelly +5 76
Garth Cusick +5 76
Kevin Smith +5 76
Troy Alsford +5 76
