Geoff treads to Michelin success at Raceview

The event itself saw four-handicapper Geoff Stewart post a superb winning score of 44 points, having played the course in four under gross.

Having commenced his round with two pars, he then had the first of four birdies on the opening nine holes, where he accumulated 24 points.

Those birdies came on the third, sixth, seventh and eighth, with the other three holes being pars.

The second nine opened with a par and his only dropped shot against par came at the 11th. Geoff soon retrieved that dropped shot as he birdied the 13th and the other six holes were all parred for a level par inward nine, for an additional 20 points.

His total of 44 was three ahead of runner-up Paul Casson (9).

Paul’s opening nine was made up of seven pars plus dropped shots on the third and eighth for 20 points, while the closing nine resulted in five pars, bogeys on the 12th, 16th and 17th and a priceless birdie on the 18th for an additional 21 points and a total of 41.

Third nett was Neal Courtney (12), also with 41 points, only to lose out on an inferior second nine to Casson.

Neal had a cracking front nine which he covered in level par, that despite having shed two shots on the opening hole, but he recouped those with birdies on the fourth and ninth.

The back nine was a different scenario as he had bogeys at 11 and 15, a double bogey at 12 and a triple bogey at 17 for no points, giving him a fairly mediocre score of 17 points on the way home.

Fourth nett was William McCartney (17) with 40 points and on a better second nine from David Crockard (15).

McCartney scored pars on the opening two holes, only to post a double bogey on the third and the other six holes consisted of fours bogeys plus pars on the fourth and ninth.

The second nine was made up of five bogeys, a double bogey at 15 plus pars on the 14th, 16th and 18th for another 20 points.

Crockard’s first nine contained six pars with bogeys at the first, eighth and ninth for 22 points.

The second nine contained a non-event on the 12th which turned out to be very costly but he still managed to notch up 18 points. Those came via five bogeys plus pars on the 10th, 13th and 15th, which accounted for eight of his 18 point second nine total.

The final nett prize went to Brian Dempster (20) who amassed 38 points, having gone to town on the second nine, where he registered 22 of his total.

Having been 12 over par on the front nine, where he had a lowly 16 points, he certainly came good on the way home where he had a trio of pars with the other six holes being single bogeys.

The best gross card came from a new face to the gross winners’ list in the form of Philip W Martin who, off a handicap of eight, played the course in three over.

A front nine of five pars, bogeys on the fifth and sixth, which were retrieved with birdies on the third and seventh, was added to in the second nine with four pars, bogeys on the 12th, 14th 16th and 17th and his lone birdie was on the 13th for three over in total.

ANDY WORKMAN MEMORIAL

The Sunday competition was for the Andy Workman Memorial Trophy and Adam Barr (11) made no mistake as he was a winner by a margin of six points, having scored 45 stableford points.

With equal nines of one over gross, which yielded 22 points on the first nine and 23 on the second, he cruised to victory.

On the full card he scored 12 pars, four bogeys plus birdies on the second and 18th and had it been stroke basis, he would have broken the 60 barrier with a nett 59.

Second place was won by Chris McCrory (16) with a total of 39 points, of which 19 came from the first nine, with 20 on the homeward stretch.

His card was made up of 12 bogeys, a double bogey on the second, four pars and a birdie on the seventh.

Michael Smyth (3) got back on the best gross trail with a score of two over, 70 shots.

The outward nine was made up of seven pars with birdies on the two par five holes, whereas the inward nine was made up of five pars plus bogeys on the 10th, 11th, 12th and 17th.

THIS WEEKEND

This Saturday’s competition at Ballymena Golf Club is sponsored by Rainey & Gregg.