Diane Anderson overcame a bad first round to claim her third straight Penticton Golf & Country Club women’s championship on Sept. 17.
“This year was exceptional I thought because when you’re not playing well, like Saturday, I shot 91, which for me was not good. I’m a seven handicap, so I should be shooting somewhere high 70s to low 80s,” she said. “For me to shoot 91, you kind of think you put yourself out of it when you play that badly.”
Anderson bounced back to shoot a 79, which she knew she had to get to have any chance of winning. The seven-time PGCC women’s champ used her own advice she gives her friends of not giving up.
“That’s what I did,” said Anderson, who finished 30 over par, 170 over two rounds. “I’ve got nothing to lose tomorrow. Just go out there and enjoy the game. Play the golf course and have fun.”
Anderson went into the final round trailing by six shots. She wound up winning by that many strokes over Viv Mohoruk.
“It was just too bizarre. It was great fun,” said Anderson, who joked about benefiting from friend Pat Lawrence’s mojo.
The overall low net winner, Jack McFall Memorial, was Louis Hickey with 144.
Matt Hopkins, who won the PGCC men’s open in the summer, won the mens side by shooting five under par, 135.
“It was nice, it was a fun weekend,” said Hopkins, who played with Kim Dixon and Brooks Lancaster, who trailed him with 143.
Hopkins said he didn’t play well in the first round, which was rainy with no wind.
“It’s almost always windy,” he said. “I hoped to shoot better than one under par.”
In the final round, the wind was calm and Hopkins shot four under.
“It was a good year for me,” said Hopkins, who also won an event at the Fairview Mountain Golf Course in Oliver.