All the news and happenings from the local golf clubs

McCANN CAN

Ten handicap Paddy McCann won Hugh Clarke’s President’s Prize at Royal Portrush Golf Club on Saturday with a score of 38 points.

He played to his handicap for the first nine holes with his birdy two on the third helping him to get to 18 points.

While he didn’t grab any more birdies Paddy didn’t drop many shots either, covering the back nine in four over par for a further 20 points.

That back nine did the trick for Paddy as Dr Tom Turner also scored 38 but had 19 back. Tom was ahead of Paddy after nine, even with a nasty blank on the fourth, as he dropped just one shot to par otherwise.

He was also doing well coming back until a dreaded six appeared on the card at the thirteenth. Another 19 for the card got Tom to 38 but it had to be runners up spot for him. Dr Keith Bailie took third with a return of 37 points.

He also had a blank in his first nine, at the second, which severely restricted the points tally, with just 15 coming his way at the turn.

Better was to come for Keith with a four on the long tenth as the start. Fifteen gave up a birdie three and the long seventeenth was trimmed to four shots too. 22 back was the culmination of that and the 37 points gave Keith his third placing.

Brian Simpson was the recipient of the Anno Domini section as he played out the round for 35 points.

Three bogies in each nine with birdies on the seventh and thirteenth, both par fours, meant a round of 76 for Mark Henry and this was good enough to take the plaudits for Best Gross for the day.

LAWRENCE GETS PGA

TANKARDS WIN

With 42 points on his card Lawrence Duffy took the honours in Portstewart’s OGA Tankards competition last week.

He set his stall out early with a birdIE, par, birdy start giving him eleven points for the three opening holes! While he stumbled a little with two blanks appearing, Lawrence pulled 20 points from the wreckage.

On the inward nine he did not record any birdies but Lawrence scored nothing worse than a bogey and had several pars to boot taking his back nine tally up to 22 and his overall score to 42.

That kept Lawrence two ahead of Jon Topps on 40 points. Jon, an eighteen handicapper and a recent Captain’s Prizewinner, played the opening nine in six over par for 21 points and all was going well into the back nine. A series of four three pointers got Jon well ahead of the course, until he got to the final three holes.

They produced just three points between them and left Jon with 19 back for a total of 40 for runners up spot.

The Low Section was won with the 37 points scored by ten handicap Moore McAuley. His blank on seven restricted the opening nine tally to just 17 but better was to come.

Moore covered the back nine in two over par, producing 20 points for his card which went up to the section winning 37.

In the High Section it was another Duffy on top, Hugh this time, with 37 points off sixteen. Hugh had a couple of single point holes but played soundly otherwise to get 20 points logged after nine. A bad six six finish didn’t help Hugh in the race for the bigger prizes but it stil gave him 17 back for the top of the Section win.

Garry McGrotty hit a round of 75 to claim the best gross. He didn’t get the best of a start with four shots being dropped over three holes from the second but his birdie three on five got the ship steadied and he added another birdie three on the eighth.

Out in 38 shots, two over par, Garry started back steadily with his only concession to par golf being a five on the par four eleventh for a one over par 37 and he signed up for his three over 78.

PEACOCK PROUD AT

BUSHFOOT

Robert Peacock’s golfing day did not start well on Saturday.

He double bogeyed the first two holes at Bushfoot and followed that with a few bogeys. But Robert settled down to add in some good pars before turning for home and playing steady golf for eight holes.

He dropped just three shots for these and even finishing with a blank he had amassed 45 Stableford points to win the Maclaine Cup with four points to spare.

He also lost three shots from his 25 handicap in the process.

Sian Wee took second with his fine effort of 41 points from his handicap of seventeen. He took 19 points from the opening nine, seven over par, but blanked the tenth to set the scoring back a bit.

Only three shots were dropped from there to the last hole where Sian slipped in a birdie three. All that meant there were another 22 to add in for his 41 and a good advantage in the tie break.

This eased Roger Hamilton, the other 41 points scorer, into third place. Roger was eight over par for the front nine for 22 points. His no score on twelve proved crucial in the countback as he ended the back nine with 19 points for his 41.

Ian Montgomery had the best gross round of the day with his 73.

Two over par 37 going out, included a birdie three at the fifth, Ian bettered this second time round. His three on fourteen helped him to get back in 36 for his three over total of 73.

JUBILEE AND LOMBARD

VICTORY FOR LEE

Nine handicapper Lee Creighton finished his day with 42 points on the card to win Castlerock’s Jubilee and Lombard Trophy by two points.

Lee had dropped two shots as he approached the sixth. His birdie there earned him four points and helped get him to 20 for the nine holes played.

He had a good back nine score going, even with two one pointers, but transformed this into a very good back nine by finishing four, three for two more birdies to boost his points tally by 22 to get to the winning 42 mark.

Glen Watt scored 40 points from his seven handicap to get second by himself. He had three one pointers in the first half of his round but had knocked in birdies on the par four second long fifth to move n himself on to 20 out.

The one pointers were reduced on the back nine but so too were the birdies, with just one, a four on seventeen, as the highlight. Glen pulled another 20 points from this and kept himself one in front of the rest.

John Hanson topped the low Section on 39 points from his mark of ten.

A very steadfast front nine gave John 19 points, no fewer than two points per hole, and this method carried over into the back nine as well.

His only single point hole, the seventeenth, was followed up with three points at the last for 20 back and 39 total.

Tom Crampsie reversed those nines to top the High Section on 39 points. Playing off 18 Tom pulled 19 points from the outward nine, even with a blank on five.

He incurred a few one point holes early in his return nine but a three hole tally of nine points to finish fired Tom to the top with 39 overall.

Len Taylor used his nineteen handicap well to take the honours in the Senior Section, scoring 36 points to do so.

He plucked four points from the seventh to help himself to 19 out before adding 17 back for his win.

David Turner’s first departure from par was when he got his birdy four on the long fifth to go one under. This was given back with a bogey on eight to see david out in level par 36.

Two shots went west with bogies at twelve and sixteen but David salvaged one of these by reducing the long seventeenth to four shots to get through the back nine in 38, one over par, and win the bets gross prize with his one over par 74.

JONATHAN TOPS AT RATHMORE

A good 37 points secured the win for Johnathan Martin in Rathmore Golf Club’s Lifeboat Spoons on Sunday played over the Dunluce course.

The four handicapper birdied the short third and the par four seventh to even out two bogies to get to the turn in level par for 20 points.

A four on the long tenth got Johnathan under par for the round but a few shots slipped away on the back nine to see him put another 17 on the card for 37 total.

Two players tied on 36 points each, Colm Friel and Donal McNicholl, with thirteen handicap Colm winning out on countback for runners up spot.

After a mediocre front nine, which included two blanks, Colm settled down to score heavily over the final nine holes.

He opened the nine with a birdie four and slipped in another with a three on thirteen. Despite double bogies on sixteen and eighteen he finished the inward nine in three over par to edge out Donal.

Playing off eleven Donal was six over par for the outward nine including a birdy three on eight.

He couldn’t find any more birds coming back but made the same score of six over par with steady golf to get third place on 36 points.

Rory Houston and Ryan Cunningham took fourth and fifth respectively with their returns of 34 points each. Three handicap Rory had birdie fours at the second and ninth going out and hit another on the par five seventeenth coming back.

Ryan had four birdies to his name, the second and the fifth helping him out in one over par.

The short eleventh gave up a two and the par four fifteenth a three before seventeen gave him nothing at all.