All the news and happenings from the local golf clubs

Lady Captain Rosie Millar held her Captain’s Day at Portstewart on Saturday 24th May.

Lady Captain Rosie had the perfect day, the weather was good and all players enjoyed a great day and evening.

There were 83 ladies playing on the Strand Course, 17 played the Riverside and over 70 men played on the Riverside course.

The winners of Lady Captains popular prizes were:

Strand Course - first prize was won by Gillian McMullan(37 points) who made an excellent speech and is looking forward to her wedding day in a few weeks when she will wear the watch presented by Lady Captain.

Gross prize - Sheila Aicken, Runner up - Nuala McNeill, third- Corinna O’Neill, 4th -Doreen Fleming,

Front 9 Inge Rowan,Back 9 Sheelagh Duffy, Committe - Hazel Browne and Golden girl- Anne Paul, Visitors prizes were won by Deirdre Stewart and Brian Fillis.

Riverside Course - first Prize Anne Bryan(35 points), Runner up- Jill Nicholl

Mens Prize - Michael Kilgore (42points).

Lady Captain Rosie was delighted with her bouquet provided by the lady members as a big thank you for a great day.

Following the golf, the Members and guests enjoyed a very good meal in the evening followed by great music and dancing to the band The Mill Boys.

AUBREY HITS 46 POINTS FOR TANKARD WIN

It took all of those 46 points that Aubrey Sweeney scored to secure an outright win in the PGA Tankard event at Bushfoot Golf Club on Saturday as he was closely followed by two 45 pointers.

Aubrey had 12 points on the card after four hoes with a birdie two on the second giving him four of those. He ended the outward nine with 21 scored, even with a blank slipping in on the ninth.

Better was to come as Aubrey not only eliminated the blanks but scored no fewer than two points per hole on a back nine that produced 25 points for him This was three over par gross with another two, at the sixteenth, helping with four points.

That was the challenge thrown down to the rest and two of them put up fine attempts with Ronald Macauley and Andre Thompson producing matching 45s.

Ronald’s came out on top after countback. He scored 21 front nine points with blank on the second but as with the winner came good on the back nine.

He dropped shots on ten, twelve and thirteen and parred the remainder to card a further 24 for his runners up spot. Andrew, playing off thirteen, had 22 for the opening nine with the highlight of a birdie three on eight. His gross for the back nine was just two over par 37 and this gave up 23 points to the card and gained third place over three 44 points scorers Trevor Moore, Alexander Murray and Keri Kidd.

Keri had the pleasure of taking the Best Gross for his round of 64, six under par. He opened and closed the front nine with birdie threes and had slipped in a two on the seventh as well to be out in three under par.

Twelve and thirteen gave up birdie threes coming back for Keri to get to five under par but more was to come as he knocked in another three on the final hole for his bogey free round of 64.

BRIAN O’CONNOR

TROPHY AT RATHMORE

Rathmore Golf club staged the Brian O’Connor Memorial Trophy on Sunday and Richard Millar stepped up with 40 points to get his name on the silverware.

His very steady front half of six over par got 21 points on the card by the turn for home after which his golf was a bit more ‘up and down’

Thirteen took two shots off him but a nice birdie two on fifteen got hings levelled up only for another two to go west on the short eighteenth. No damage was done however as Richard’s 40 points got him a one point advantage over three players on 39 each.

Jonny Birch was the best of the trio, playing off four. He was out in two over par for 18 points.

Another shot was lost on ten with a six but birdies on the par four twelfth and the long thirteenth got him back to one over par and Jonny stayed there with five pars to finish for 21 back.

Rory Hamilton returned to the podium in third place, beaten out of second on countback and nine handicapper Lee Baird took fourth helped by his birdie two on fifteen. Russell Napier took the final placing with the better of several 38 pointers.

Ian Kettyle’s 69 secured another Best Gross. He was out in one over par 36 with a birdy three on nine.

This was followed by another three on ten to get to level par for the day before Ian’s final birdie arrived with a four on the long thirteenth. Pars all the way in gave him his one under 69 score.

OPEN WEEK AT RATHMORE

The Open Week at Rathmore is always a popular, well supported series of Mens Open Stableford competitions.

It commences on Sunday 8 June with the Mens Open Stablefod sponsored by Molson Coors / Carlings. Thursday 12 June sees the second Mens Open Stableford this time sponsored by Ivan Murdock & Sons.

On Friday 13 June Smallcost Carpets are sponsors for the Mens Open Stableford competition.

The final day is Sunday 15 June when the event is sponsored by Oasis Retail Services
There are still a few ‘Tee-Times’ available but bookings should be made early to be guaranteed a time slot. Phone 028 7082 2285.

Club Championship

Qualifying at Gracehill

Leading qualifier Randal McDonnell will play Ian Morrison with Johnny Munnis taking on Steven Bell, Leslie McCauley againstFrancis McKenna, and Robert McNeill playing Martin Hunter in the Club Championship.

In the nett section, leading qualifier Martin Huey will play Joe Sloan with Trevor Kane against Tim McGarry, Paul Gilmore taking onTrevor Edgar, and Tommy Dykes playing Willy McQuiston.

CUP WIN FOR DENIS

The Queen Elizabeth Cup was fought for at Portstewart GC on Saturday with Denis McCrum coming out with the victory by scoring 42 points off his fifteen handicap.

His front nine score of 18 was greatly assisted by a birdie two on the third for four points but a series of single point holes and a blank on nine didn’t help his cause.

Whatever happened in the halfway house needs to be bottled, maybe it already is, as Denis came out of it a changed man.

His birdies at the short twelfth and the par four sixteenth were mixed in with five pars to see him two under for the first seven on the back nine.

Although he finished double bogey, bogey it was still a one over par back nine and yielded 24 points to the card to push Denis on to 42 overall.

Kenny Woodrow was just one behind on 41playing off nine. He was going along nicely until the long par four fifth gave up nothing to Kenny’s card.

It took an eagle three on the seventh to recoup that and allow 21 points to be logged at the turn.

Kenny didn’t drop a shot from there until his four at fifteen arrived, but with just one more bogey, on seventeen, he had covered the last nine in two over par for 20 points.

The best Gross prize was claimed by Desi Ballentine. He birdied both front nine par fives and the eighth to be out in one over par 37.

He had a trio of consecutive birdies early on the return nine, a three on eleven, a two at twelve and a four on thirteen.

That put him on two under par but seventeen and eighteen were not kind to Desi, they took four shots off him and he had to be satisfied with his round of two over par 74.

Four handicapper Adam Brown took the Low Section prize with a 40 point return. He opened his account with a birdy three took another birdie from the long fourth before knocking in an eagle three on the seventh for good measure. 22 points were in the bag after nine but the sub par scores were not finished.

Adam birdied thirteen in four and eagled the fourteenth in three before seventeen gave him a double bogey six. All that meant was 18 points back for his total of 40. In the High Section it was Kieran Lagan who topped the chart with another 40 pointer.

He is a fourteen handicapper and played to this on the front nine, even with a blank to start, to have 18 points at the halfway stage. He dropped just three shots on the back nine to register another 22 for his prize.

McIlmoyle back in form

Ryan McIloyle came back to form to secure his first win of the season in the Club Stableford on Thursday with an impressive score of 42 points.

Ryan or Macca as he is otherwise known played superbly with the highlight of the round being an eagle at the par 4 seventh hole.

A big drive down the middle followed by an exquisite 9 iron shot saw the ball take a few bounces and drop in the hole.

After a long season playing for Coleraine FC Macca can now concentrate on his golf and having a crack at the Golfer of the Year title.

Graham Forrest and Captain Neville Martin also played well with fine rounds of 41 points each with Graham just taking second place courtesy of a better back nine.