A great weekend for Rodger as he hits form to land double success

Having gone a long time without a win he will be both delighted and surprised at the way his weekend turned out and will no doubt be eagerly anticipating his next golfing outing.

Last Saturday he balanced birdies at 4 and 10 with bogeys at 15 and 17 for a level par round to add to an already impressive golfing CV.

Second place went to Ronnie Bruce who also had 37 points, off 19. Ronnie looked like topping 40 points at one stage but a pair of late 7s popped up at 14 and 15 to deny him victory on the back nine.

Francis Tallon continued on his merry sub-par way when he toured the course in 5 under par to take the day’s gross prize.

Having played five weeks in the Winter League he has scored 23 birdies, 42 pars and just five bogeys.

Section 1 went to Mark Headley with 35 points off 5. A couple of eagles in the past few weeks have suggested that Mark is in good form and about to produce the goods and on Saturday he duly obliged. One over par at the turn he began his journey home with a trio of birdies and with no subsequent slip-ups confidently took the prize.

With a League average of 33 points Roy Hanna Jnr may have justifiably expected to have found himself among the prizes sooner than this, so he will be pleased that Saturday’s 1 under par round yielded 34 points, off 5, to give him Section 1. His level par back 9 just edged out the very in-form Gregory Crawford.

Gregory was four under par with four holes to play but he dropped three shots thereafter to miss out by the narrowest of margins.

Nevan Lavery has been really enjoying his golf these days but his previous successes have consequently led to winter handicap reductions. He scored 37 points, off 12, which was reduced to 35 points, still good enough however to lift Section 2.

The last hole has not been kind to him and his double bogey there was his third such score at that hole in the five weeks of the League. Neil Dillon’s roller coaster round left him with 34pts, off 12, to take the runners-up spot. Birdies at 1, 9 and 11, a double bogey at 5 and NR at 12 must have left him wondering just what sort of a day he had had. Colm Nash also had 34 points, off 9, but missed out on the back 9 thanks to a double bogey at 14 and bogey at 17.

You cannot have a Winter League without Francis McKenna featuring prominently among the prizes so it was little surprise to see him take Section 3 with 36 points off 19. He made few mistakes on his way round and if he could just have avoided a double bogey at 15 he would have figured even more prominently.

Billy Leslie has now averaged 35 points over the five weeks of the league and he took second place with 35 points. Very much a contender for the overall best player prize he will preparing for next Saturday’s dawn swoop on the League’s last day.

Level par after 9 he dropped six shots over the last five holes.

Just behind on 34 points came Maurice Turnbull, 18, Jonathan Lawless, 15, and Hugh O’Reilly, 15.

The latest bridge results are as follows:

N/S-1, G Turkington and E O’Neill; 2, T Rae and S Pollock;

E/W-1, R McHenry and R Tallon; 2, H Brangam and C Logan.