Exciting finish in store to Galgorm Winter League

After a lay-off of three Saturdays due to the heavy falls of snow and frost it was good to see the green, green grass of the fairways.

At halfway in the Low Section Neil McVeigh held a two point advantage over Leonard Craig, Steven Penney and Mark Hamilton with Chris Cooke and Dave Kernoghan another two points behind. Through 12 McVeigh was still leading but only by one point from Penney and Hamilton.

Craig came next another point behind. Cooke (birdies at 11 and 12)and Kernoghan (eagle at 10 and birdies on 11 and 12) were still in arrear but they had closed the gap on the leader to three points.

After 14 and with two holes to play McVeigh led by two points from Craig with Cooke, Kernoghan and Penney a further two points away with Hamilton falling another point down (the result of a double bogey and a bogey on 13 and 14 respectively).

A par, bogey over the closing two holes enabled L Craig to draw level with N McVeigh (double bogey, bogey) and with a better back nine take first place with McVeigh second. There was a scramble for third place between the remaining four players.

Two points down Kernoghan (birdie, par), Penney (par, birdie), Cooke (two pars) and Hamilton (two pars) finished level and with a better back nine Cooke took third place.

In the High Section Alan Collie and Jonathan McCart led by two points from Bernie Frayne and Wilfred Morrison. Derrick McClelland and Neil Fitzsimmons were at one point intervals respectively further behind.

After the Maple and with three holes to play Collie was on his own, one point in front of Morrison with Frayne and McCart a further point behind. McClelland and Fitzsimmons were three points further adrift.

Collie finished par, bogey, double bogey and was passed up the last by both Morrison (two pars and a bogey) and Frayne (birdie, par, bogey) who finished level and with a better back nine Morrison finished in first place with Frayne second. Morrison held onto third place two points ahead of McClelland (par, par, double bogey), McCart (three bogeys) and Fitzsimmons (three pars) who finished together.

WINTER LEAGUE

What a final Saturday lies ahead to the Winter League where a nail biting finish is expected.

Only two points separate the top two teams and adding to the friendly rivalry will be that the past captain (Paul Christie) is on one team and the vice-captain on the other team.

Team 14 (P Christie, D Watterson, D Cousley, G McAuley, H McCaughan, S MacDonald and S O'Loughlin) lead Team 4 (Jordan Hood, J McCarry, D Martin, N Fitzsimmons, G Simpson, P Warren and R McDyer) by two points with Team 10 (M Bellew, A Workman, J Hunt, D McCarroll, R Foster, B Frayne and S Black) 23 points further behind.

Another seven points behind come Team 1 (M Alexander, D Halliday, S McLaughlin, D Black, T Monaghan, R Clarke and John Hood) and Team 7 (C Steele, D McLaughlin, D Thom, M Brown, B Armstrong, Asa McGillian and R Speers).

Team 11 (B McDowell, C Cooke, P Galloway, T Todd, A Knox, P O’Loughlin and W Peacock) are close on their heels one point away.