Melson Trading triumph

MT HAGEN’S Melson Trading won back-to-back titles in the Prime Minister’s Corporate Golf Challenge, topping the Lae tournament two weeks ago and repeated the feat on Friday in the Port Moresby leg.
The tough Royal Port Moresby Golf Club-hosted challenge attracted a record 57 teams with the cream of the country’s amateurs featuring in the four-man 18-hole ambrose event.
Team Melson, like Motu Koita Assembly (MKA), emerged with 55.13 points but with a combined lower handicap of 7.87 took the main prize. MKA’s handicap was 11.87.
Melson was led by Tom Kevin (handicap 2) and Honk Kama (11) with Michael Borrett (1) and Dadi Toka Jnr (27) heading MKA.
PNG DataCo grabbed third spot with 55.25 points and Oil Search Ltd fourth with 56.38.
Kevin told The National that it was his team’s first outing at the Royal Port Moresby Golf Club.
“We are all new to the city,” he said.
“After winning the Lae challenge, we got some good feedback from sponsors who wanted to us to compete in Port Moresby so we arrived earlier in the week to get the feel of the greens.
“Everything worked out well for us in our combinations and since I was the senior member in the team, I took on the drives while my teammates took care of the second and third shots and the putting.
“We all focused on our parts throughout the day and I’m just grateful we got the first place.”
Prime Minister James Marape, who also fielded a team, said: “We tried our best to return to normalcy and we’re very happy and pleased to see companies take up the PM’s Corporate Golf Challenge every year. It’s always for a worthy cause and that’s to support our team for the Olympics (next year) and as a government, we look forward to supporting the team and getting them to Tokyo.”