The Osoyoos Golf Club held its 2014 Club Championship tournament on Saturday and Sunday as members vied for bragging rights. At the end of two days of tough competition, the club champions for this year include, from left, senior men’s champion Rick Duncan, women’s champion Paule Aukema (who defended her title), junior champion Ben Petreny and men’s champion Greg Reely, who won for the second time in three years. (Keith Lacey photo)
Greg Reely knows how to make sweet music off the golf course and how to hit sweet shots on it.
For the second time in three years, Reely, 50, is the men’s club champion at the Osoyoos Golf Club after shooting a two-day score of 147 (73-74) to claim the men’s club championship Sunday afternoon.
Paule Aukema captured her third women’s club championship title – and second in succession – after shooting 81-85 for a 166 total.
Rick Dundas claimed his first men’s senior club championship by shooting a terrific round of 72 on Saturday and followed it up with a 78 on Sunday.
Reely moved to Osoyoos four years ago from Vancouver and continues to work as a recording engineer.
He has helped produce albums and recordings by several of Canada’s top recording artists, including Serena Ryder, Chantal Kreviazuk, Randy Bachman, 54/40 and the heavy metal band Fear Factory.
Reely, who has a 5.6 handicap, edged out Greg Balogh to win the club championship by a couple of strokes.
Playing consistent golf was the key to victory, said Reely.
“My biggest strength was definitely staying out of trouble,” he said. “I hit a lot of fairways and I hit a lot of greens in regulation and never had more than a bogey all weekend and that’s often what it takes to succeed against the best players in the club.
“I was very consistent all weekend and fortunately that was good enough to win it all.”
Reely’s consistency could be seen by the fact that he had only three birdes in each round, along with five bogeys each round.
Like all competitors in the club championship, they played one round on the Desert Golf Course and the second on the Park Meadows course.
Having a four-stroke lead after the opening round made Sunday’s final round relatively stress-free, said Reely.
“I never really got in trouble so I didn’t think I was in any danger of losing my lead,” he said. “It’s a lot easier to play good golf when you have a decent lead and that really helped to keep me settled down during the final round.”
Reely plays golf two or three times each week at Osoyoos Golf Club and said winning his second club championship in three years is an honour.
“We have a great bunch of guys here and some really good golfers, so it’s always a big deal to win the club championship,” he said.
Aukema, who won her first club championship in 2009, said winning her second-consecutive title was challenging.
“I didn’t play as well or score as well as I did last year, but it was still good enough to win,” she said.
Her short game was the reason she won last year and reason she repeated this year, said Aukema.
“I’m not a long ball hitter at all and many of the ladies I played against were bombing it past me off the tee, but my chipping was just excellent and my putting was solid,” she said. “I have to rely a lot on my short game and it was really good this weekend.”
Aukema defeated Claudia Wood by five strokes to claim the club championship, while Christine Jurgensen finished third.
Aukema, who moved to Osoyoos to retire five years ago in large part because of her affinity for the Osoyoos Golf Club, said she’s looking forward to defending her title next year.
Dundas, a former professional hockey player and retired lumber mill manager, said winning the senior men’s championship is exciting.
“I had a terrific round on Saturday and had a few holes in my game today (Sunday), but I had enough of a cushion to hang on,” he said. “I had never won this before, so it’s an honour to win it for the first time.”
Dundas has been a member at the Osoyoos Golf Club since 2005.
Only three juniors competed in the junior club championship with Ben Petreny, 18, easily claiming the title once again.
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
