Jeff Wiggins romped to the championship in the One Club Wonder golf tournament at the Mountain View Golf Club this past Saturday with a nine stroke victory over Ken Taylor.

Wiggins, who in his spare time is the Director of Golf at the club, had taken a year off from the tournament in order to hone his game, and the results were clearly in evidence.

His winning score of 81 was just one shot shy of the tournament record held by Blaine Tessier.

Wiggins was clearly competent in all aspects of the game, from tee to green.

He managed to stay on the fairway during the entire round and was adept on the greens with only 27 putts.

This is easier said than done when putting with an iron.

It was a highlight day for the employees of the course as Derek Wirth, course superintendent, was the low net winner.

He shot a 93 which, with his 20 handicap and a tournament low of 25 for putts, resulted in a net score of 73. This is the second lowest net score in the history of this venerable tournament next to the record 67 shot in 2005 by the legendary

Matthew Sills. It was obvious to observers that Wirth had spent a great deal of his work time this past summer bagging sand. Although suspicious about that, one and all were copious in their compliments to Wirth for the magnificent shape the course was kept in this year.

Graham Frey, assistant professional, also played in the tournament and, as with many rookies, struggled a bit with certain aspects of the game.

His score of 99 occasioned doubt as to whether he was walking the talk when it came to "keeping those legs steady and squaring up the club at impact”.

In fairness, it was the difficulties that he encountered on the green that provided the most entertainment and a substantial amount of his strokes.

Previous luminaries in the tournament, including three-time winners Blaine Tessier and Vic Istchenko, and the last two years' net champion Barry Davidson, could not take advantage of the perfect weather conditions and turned in lackluster scorecards.

Tessier, who has carried home the main hardware during three of the past four years, did manage a third place finish, but his 91 was well short of past excellence.

He may have been inspired by advice from the home front respecting the space taken up in the closet by the insidious yellow sweater proffered to the winner of this event. Apparently there are some who hold the opinion that

"It's not really the green jacket and it's not much of a fashion complement either.”

Davidson, who may have been assisting Wirth in loading sand this past season as witnessed by his handicap increase, was quoted after his win last year as saying,

"If this keeps up, I'll soon be owning those trophies.”

This does not seem terribly likely in light of a net score ballooning from 75 to 84 in one year.

The wave of the future, which has washed over the likes of Davidson and Gareth Howells (both erroneously picked in previous reports as players to be watched),

appears to be favouring youngsters like Ken Taylor and Dan Moore and, on the net side, a face from the past in Paul Hunter.

This was the 14th annual One Club Wonder and, in the style of a pro-am event, featured a record 35 players with handicaps ranging from 0 to 27.

As its title suggests, participants are restricted to one club which must be used for every purpose - driving, iron shots, putting and, if necessary, as a bottle opener.

The tournament, which was first played on the back nine by seven players in 1996, has grown to the current 35 players playing the full 18 holes.

The gross and net scores have not changed markedly over that time with the 2010 averages of 101 and 86 being reflective of the nine year averages of 103 and 87.

Overall excellence of play is on the upswing with 43 per cent of the players breaking 100 compared to 39 per cent in 2009.

Organizers paid special thanks to the Mountain View Golf Course and its employees for the cooperation and good humour they exhibited throughout both the planning and the playing of the tournament.

• This special report filed directly from the Mountain View Golf Course by Nat Stremy