All the news and happenings from the local golf clubs

David Millar gathered 41 points from his handicap of fourteen on Saturday to win the McFaull Cup by two points.

It was an inauspicious start, a six on the par four first, but David settled down to drop just three shots before the turn to have 20 points in the bag. His birdie three on twelve helped no end as a few shots were slipping away.

He bogeyed the final three holes to more than double the first nine score to 41 points and took the trophy by two from Gary McCullagh.

Gary scored his 39 from his handicap of sixteen. On the way out his birdy three on the fourth made up for a nasty no score on two and helped to get him to the halfway point with 20 points carded.

No mishaps coming back, just a steady seven over par to better his handicap by two for the nine and get to 19 back, 39 total for second spot. Colin Millar took third with another 39 points off sixteen.

He was going along quite calmly until he hit a double bogey five on eleven and failed to register on thirteen to lose out on countback and was pushed into third place.

Keri Kidd took the best gross prize with a tally of 78. He grabbed birdies with a three on the third going out and a four on fifteen and another three on seventeen coming back.

FERGAL’S PURPLE STREAK NETS CUP

Six handicapper Fergal Stewart played the nine holes of his golfing career at Portstewart last week, winning the Teddy Reade Cup in the process.

He opened his card with an ordinary par four but followed this with a birdie three on the second and a two on the third. Again an ordinary par five led to two birdies, a three on the index one and another two on the short sixth.

This pattern repeated again as Fergal parred the long seventh before hitting threes on eight and nine for two more birdies! Six birdies, three pars, out in six under 30 and with 27 points on his card.

All good things come to an end as Fergal picks up just one point at ten and twelve before he gathered himself together again with a couple of pars and another birdie four on the fourteenth.

His final hole slip up, a nine, did not matter, except to Fergal’s pride, as he won by a four point margin with his 42 points. That eighteenth also gave Fergal a gross score of 75, three over par.

In second spot was another Stewart, Ansley, who hit 38 points off his handicap of two. He birdied the second and the long seventh but failed to register a hit on nine to get to the turn with 19 points bagged.

He opened his back nine account with a bogey five but more than recouped that with an eagle three on fourteen before dropping a shot on sixteen with a five. Two pars to finish gave Ansley another 19 for his card and 38 points for second place. In Section A Ivor Turkington kept last week’s winning form going with a return of 37 getting him another prize.

Now playing off twelve Ivor pulled thirteen points from the first four holes, including birdies on the par four second and the long fourth. A single point on the long par four fifth was not a bad one and Ivor ran out the nine 23 points to the good. The start and end of the back nine caused damage to Ivor’s score, a single pointer and a no score to start with and two one pointers to finish meant just 14 points back and 37 total.

Mark Cutler scored 35 points with his fourteen handicap and took the top spot in Section B as a result. An opening double bogey and a blank on six was repaired by Mark’s birdy four on the seventh and helped him to 19 points at the turn. He was only able to pull three points from the first three holes of the back nine before settling again but 16 points was the result for inward half and gave him a 35 total.

Club Captain Mark Windebank claimed another best gross with his round of five over par 77. After a start of bogey, birdy, double bogey Mark hit six pars to get to the turn in 38, two over par. No more birdies were to be found for Mark and a few one bogeys did appear to push his back nine score to 39 for a gross of 77.

JOHNNY HUNTER SHIELD GOES TO KENNY

One point covered the top four placings in Portstewart GC’s Johnny Hunter Shield leaderboard but it was Kenny Woodrow’s 38 points that did the trick in the countback stakes to get his name on the silverware.

The eight handicapper had a birdie free front nine, in fact he missed scoring on the third hole, but managed to get 18 points carded in spite of this.

Kenny knocked in a two on the twelfth before dropping his first shot in the back nine with a four on fifteen.

He took seven points from the final trio of holes to pull 20 points from the back nine and get to 38 for the eighteen.

He was matched by seven man Philip McAuley for the 38 points but the tie break put Philip second. Philip started with three bogeys for four points but doubled this to eight with a birdie four on the fourth. The long seventh went the same way and Philip shortened the ninth to three shots to get to the turn with 20 points on his card.

He was three up on twos for seven holes of the back nine and one under par, courtesy of his birdie four on thirteen, but he finished with a pair of double bogeys that meant 18 back and second in the countback.

The Low Section winner was Andrew Campbell with 37 points scored from his six handicap. Andrew birdied the second but bogied the next and had to wait until nine to pick up his second birdie for a level par front nine of 36 and 21 points.

He didn’t fare too well on the par fives on the back nine with one no score at thirteen and just one point from fourteen to show.

One more shot was lost after that and he had to be content with 16 back for his 37 points total. Shaun McCafferty took top spot in the High Section with another 37 pointer.

He played steadily over the first nine holes in spite of a blank on the fourth to have 18 points gained at the hut. Shaun got just one point at ten but got a good two on twelve for a four pointer to get back into contention but another single point from sixteen gave him 19 back and took him out of the podium placings and into the section prizes.

Shaun puts this recent run of form down to his new fitness regime, he is ‘ripped’ as they say, and so is his handicap!

Talking of form Mark Windebank took another Best Gross for his card of 77, five over par.

His birdie three on nine got him to the turn on four over par 40 but a revival was coming.

Mark birdied both par threes on the back nine and dropped shots at seventeen and eighteen to add 37 to his card for a gross of 77.

HALF TIME AT RATHMORE

The Club Championship got under way at Rathmore GC on Sunday, together with an aggregate two round Stableford competition, and Ian Kettyle heads the field after 18 holes.

He produced a round of three under par 67 to lead by five shots in the Championship.

The second took a shot from Ian with a five but the short third gave up his first birdie of the day to level things up. Ian went under par after his birdie four on the fourth and increased his sub par score by one with a three on the ninth. This saw him through the turn on two under par 33. The long par five tenth was duly birdied too with the final birdy for Ian arriving at the thirteenth to get the card to four under par. A five on fourteen however took Ian back a shot and he ran out the eighteen on 67, three under for the round.

Four players tied on 72 shots, the best of these was claimed by Rory Houston. He birdied three of the par fives and added in a three on the twelfth to help his cause. Russell Dunlop had just one birdy, a three on the fifth, but dropped shots on the third, fourteenth and the last to be eased into third place on countback.

Leon Stevenson’s double bogey six on the second took the good from his birdies on the fourth and fifth but he still claimed fourth spot over Ben Best in the tie break.

The double bogies on two and seventeen didn’t help Ben after he had birdied the long fourth and the par four fifth going out and the short fifteenth on his way back.

In the Stableford competition it was John McIntyre who turned up tops with a tally of 40 points.

The seven handicapper set his stall out early by playing the first in three shots but let a shot slip with a bogey five at the sixth.

Seven pars completed the front nine and gave John 21 points for his card. He got another birdie with a four on thirteen before boosting his tally by two shots by hitting an eagle two on the par four fourteenth.

Some holes were not so favourable, especially the short fifteenth where John failed to score. This restricted his scoring on the back nine only slightly as he added 19 to his 21 for his winning aggregate of 40.

Ian Kettyle’s gross 67 got him second place in the Stableford with 39 points and Harry Moon got third with 38 off his handicap of five. He birdied the first and ninth on his way out and picked up another with a two on fifteen.

A nasty no score six at the end put paid to topping the chart though so third it was. Hilary Dooey and Club Captain Paul Roddy scored 37 each to take fourth and fifth placed respectively.