ONE week after a win against Dubbo thrust Bathurst into the Central West District Golf Association division one pennants title picture the team have come crashing back down to earth.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
A tough 3-2 defeat to Forbes on Sunday hasn't quite put the championships out of Bathurst's reach but it's certainly made the going a little tougher.
Bathurst were coming into the match after back-to-back 4-1 wins over Parkes and Dubbo, feeling confident they could keep the momentum going against a Forbes team who had been wiped 5-0 by Wellington in the previous round.
But that previous Forbes team didn't feature team leaders Steve and John Betland, while Bathurst were without the services of their regular number one Reece Hodson.
Bathurst's Matt Phillips was a 5 and 4 winner over Dan Bayley and Stephen McDonald was too strong for John Betland in the closest of the day's matches - a 2 and 1 victory.
However, Forbes closed out the tie as Peter Dawson beat Daniel Stibbard (3 and 2), Shane Sallaway comfortably accounted for Darryn Bruce (7 and 5) and Steve Betland showed his class in the battle of the number ones with his win over Justin Sutton (3 and 1).
Mudgee remain undefeated through their three games while Wellington have emerged as the biggest challengers in division one with their 3-1 record.
Bathurst sit in third with their 2-2 record and need win in their last two games of the competition to be a realistic chance of jumping ahead of Mudgee and Wellington.
They'll have to wait this weekend though as they have the bye.
Hodson said it's not all lost for Bathurst, though the weekend's result had piled some added pressure on them.
"Forbes are a good side with the Betland boys and Shane Sallaway. Unfortunately we couldn't get the biscuits but two of our boys were able to get the win," he said.
"That's put us back to third. Because the format is first past the post and we still have to play Mudgee in one of our matches we'll need a few things to go our way.
"Credit still goes to our boys because we've been practicing hard and doing work up at the driving range with Matt Barrett and out on the course on a Friday. Matchplay is one of those funny things that can go either way and we were just unlucky not to get the win.
"There's two matches to go and I'm not giving up without a fight."
Meanwhile, Bathurst's division two and three teams each currently have one win and two losses while the division four side are in a strong position with three wins from four matches.
Division four claimed a 3-2 win over Forbes, gaining an instant lead with a walkover in the number five game while the other four wins were shared between the clubs.
They currently sit second in the eight-team competition with only the undefeated Dubbo sitting ahead of them.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content:
- Bookmark www.westernadvocate.com.au
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Instagram
- Follow us on Google News