St Clair beat Otago Blue by a 4 to 2 margin at Balmacewen yesterday to open up a healthy lead in the coastal Senior A men's pennant series after the first two rounds.
The win gives St Clair a maximum of six points and a good nine-game tally to be two points and two games ahead of second-placed Otago Gold.
Last year, St Clair was unbeaten in the 10 round-robin matches but lost the final to Otago Blue to lose the series.
St Clair was in control for most of the contest, with No3 Brent McEwan and No5 Stephen Hitchcox both winning by convincing 5 and 4 margins.
Despite his recent retirement from representative golf, McEwan was showing top form, giving Otago Blue captain Brandon Hodgson little chance.
Chris Snow beat Daniel Elder with two holes to spare, while at No6 Michael Ormandy downed Ben Patston on the 17th green.
Otago won the top two matches but the battle between the No1 players went to the final green, with Nick Borren beating Ryan Bellamy by one.
Michael Smith won the 17th hole with a par 4 to down Connor Ross with one hole to spare.
Otago Gold had a 4 to 2 win over North Otago to gain three points and get up into second place.
Schoolboys Will Young (No4) and Joseph Hancock (No6) both posted wins.
Newly crowned Otago senior champion John McIntee beat Oamaru's Gary Creedy by 3 and 2, while Ben Turner beat promising John MacKay by 5 and 4.
For North Otago, Simon Hollyer and Scott Clark posted wins by 2 and 1 and two up respectively.
Chisholm Links had its second 3-all draw on Saturday - this time playing away to Island Park on the Waldronville course.
Cody McMullan won the battle of the No1 players, beating Michael Wray 3 and 2, while at No2 Park's Michael Minty made it 1-1, beating Mark Collie by the same margin.
The Geary brothers, Kyle and Sean, posted wins for Chisholm Links, while the Island Park tail wagged with Jarden Hammond and Andrew Hobbs evening the score.
