Rochford Hundred golfers experienced vastly-differing playing conditions for the January medal over the weekend.

Rock-hard fairways and frosty greens greeted Saturday players while Sunday gave way to mild, softer and much more receptive conditions and the scoring certainly reflected the contrast.

Marshall Dale's last-minute decision to enter paid dividends when he took Saturday's Division One honours with 80-9=71 to beat off the challenge from Jordan Moss (75-2=73) and Beris Edwards (79-6=73).

Dale enjoyed 11 pars while Moss fired five birdies plus six pars but a triple and a double bogey wrecked his chances.

Six pars helped Mick Hobbs to 87-16=71 which was good enough to win Division 2 ahead of Dave Wade (89-16=73) and Derek Philbrick (87-14=73).

Tony Hadley was in red-hot form on Sunday with seven birdies and six pars helping him to 69-1=68 which just won Division 1 from Ray Walsingham (79-10=69) and Mick Gill (73-4=69).

Walsingham shot two birdies and seven pars while Gill had four birdies and 11 pars only to ruin his hopes with a triple and a double bogey.

Phillip Goodwin had six pars in his 87-16=71 which beat Bob Lough (83-11=72) and Peter Richardson (89-16=73) for Division 2 success.

Published Thursday January 8, 2004

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