All the news and happenings from the local golf clubs

The Spanboard Cup was awarded to the winner of the weekend competition at the Brown Trout played in stableford format. In a change from the two previous weeks scoring was well down although playing conditions on both Saturday and Sunday were favourable.

Jonathan Kearns (9) took the honours with 39 points. Johnnie opened with 18 front nine points before adding 21 with a one over par second nine to edge out last week’s winner Jimmy Kelly (9) by one point.

Jimmy opened with 17 points and also added a one over par second nine resulting in 21 points.

Losing out after the tiebreaker two other members had returns of 38 points with Robert Orr (12) and Lyle Harris (13) both playing steadily scoring 19 points each nine with Robert scoring 13 over the last six against Lyle’s 12 to capture third prize. William Pyper scooped the twos kitty with the only two.

RNLI COMPETITION

Ballycastle Golf Club Ladies Branch R.N.L.I. Open Teams Competiton results: Winners: Mary T. McKiernan, Jennifer Duncan, Susan Crawford; Runners-up: Kim Fee, Audrey Finley, Nanette Stewart; Third Place: Elizabeth Dowds, Mary Duffin, Doreen Reid.

The Ladies Branch wish to thank Sheskburn Garage and Casey Oils for their generous donations and the visiting teams for their support.

McILROY IS THE WINNER

Eamon McIlroy scored a superb nett 64 on Saturday to win the Peter Lamont Trophy at Ballycastle Golf Club. Twelve handicapper Eamon kicked off his round with a birdie at the opening hole and apart from a slight blip at the sixth, rattled off twelve pars and four bogeys over the remaining holes to clinch the title by a single shot from the defending champion Hugh Sayers.

Playing off seven, Hugh completed the course in 72 shots with birdie two’s at the third and thirteenth holes plus a closing birdie on the final green.

The section one prize on Saturday went to Leo Morgan (12) with a nett 66, Aiden Higgins (15) won the section two prize with a nett 65 and Ian McIlrath (20) was the section three winner with a nett 66. The best gross prize went to one handicapper Patrick Dallat who carded six birdies in a fantastic three under par 68. Mel Carleton fended off the challenge of Harry Sheehan, John Higgins and Colm Hendrie to claim the second gross prize on the better back nine after all four golfers recorded 73’s on Saturday.

Mel’s score on Saturday also earned him four precious points in the race for the Golfer of the Year title. Mel leads the way with a total of 99 points, Rory Gallagher sits in second place with 93 points, Francis og McGinn is third with 83 points.

Sunday’s competition was a charity open stableford and thanks to an excellent turnout of members and visitors, £150 was raised for Good Morning Ballycastle. The competition was won by Philip Michael, playing off twenty, whose brilliant back nine of 24 points helped him accumulate a total of 43 points to finish one clear of Damien McIlhatton (20) in second place. Paul Surgenor (11) won the section one prize with 42 points, Paul Fairley (15) was the section two winner with 40 points and Galgorm Castle’s Damien Casey (18) won the section three prize with 41 points.

Five handicapper Aaron Mooney won the gross prize on Sunday with a one under par 70 and Owen Kennedy was second.

On Sunday afternoon, defending champions Ballycastle hosted a team from Cairndu Golf Club in the opening match of this year’s North Antrim Shield. After a nail-biting encounter, the match ended in a 10-10 draw!

Brendan Kirgan (14) won the Midweek Open competition at Ballycastle with a splendid score of 45 points. Liam Gallagher took second place with Harry Sheehan third.

This year’s Silver Mounted Golf Ball fourball betterball match-play competition has reached the latter stages with Gerard and Peter Dowds taking on Danny Taggart and Seamus Killough in their semi-final match with the winners going on to meet Patrick Dixon and Seamus McMullan in the final after they got the better of Andrew McConaghy and Francis og McGinn in their semi-final encounter.

The Glentaisie Trophy fourball betterball versus par competition takes place at the clubnext Saturday with the Alphy McCaughan Cup stroke competition held on Sunday.

PRESIDENT’S PRIZE FOR DES

In a close scoring day it was des Hamilton who came up trumps to with Bob Hedley’s President’s Prize at Bushfoot Golf Club. The seventeen handicapper scored 41 points to post a one point victory over the rest. His score was built on the front nine as, after an average enough start, Des parred the last four to boost his tally for the nine to 22 points. A couple of double bogies turned up on the second lap but enough good pars kept Des on track and another 19 points were bagged to get him to the finishing line with 41 carded.

Just one back came Richard Henry on 40.

Playing off eighteen Richard also scored better on the opening nine with 22 points coming his way from it. After two opening bogies he parred the next seven to get to his 22 points. Eleven gave up nothing to Richard but he dropped in a birdy three at thirteen to get back in the hunt until sixteen took two shots off him. 40 points was the result and second spot was the prize for Richard.

Sam Montgomery ran Richard close with another 40 pointer, losing out to countback. Again a few dropped shots early in the front nine were followed by a string of pars to get 22 points bagged. Eleven was the killer hole as Sam failed to score there and a double bogey finish did not help in the countback.

DAVID IN TIE BREAK WIN

Thirteen handicapper David Lamont won a close tie break decision to get his hands on the Riverside Trophy at Portstewart GC on Saturday.

He had played to that handicap on the opening nine holes for eighteen points but bettered it by five on the inward stretch. Twelve, thirteen and fourteen were bogied for two points each but these were the only dropped shots for the nine and, for good measure David birdied the sixteenth for four. All in all that back nine tally of 23 points was vital in securing the win as Matthew Weir had equalled David’s 41 points but lost out on countback with 22 from the inward half.

Adam Brown took the Best Gross honour with a level par round of 68.

Even with an inconsistent front nine score of 17 points Shane Kerr rallied on the inward half to add another 23 points to top the Low Section. Late birdies at sixteen and eighteen boosted Shane’s prospects to get into the prizewinner’s slots. The High Section was taken by Cathal Carr with another 41 pointer. The fifteen handicapper scored steadily on the way out to card 20 points for the nine and kept this up on the way in too, adding 21 for his total of 41.

Good Cause Day at

Portstewart

Two charities, Cancer Focus NI and the Alzheimers Society, jointly benefited from the recent open held at Portstewart Golf Club.

Ninety-three members and twenty visitors competed for the eye catching handbag and wallet prizes. Many thanks go to the main sponsor, club caterer Chris McLaughlin ([email protected]).

At the evening function the wine was sponsored by Clare Johnston of the Railway Arms, with cheese and nibbles from CL catering and it was well attended and the members generously supported a variety of fund raising events. Raffle prizes included a putter from Club Professional Alan Hunter with the Railway Arms presenting a framed and signed Darren Clarke polo shirt. The evening continued with the ever popular tombola and ‘free the spirit’ and guess the number of balloons in a Mini kindly lent by JKC Specialist Cars.

Lady Captain Mo Giffin presented the lucky winners with their prizes. The overall winner with an excellent score of 43 points was Alice McGill. Playing off thirteen, Gillian McMullan won best gross with 26 gross points.

In runners up spot was Lynne Gibb with 39 points. Alison Bann came third with 35 points leaving Suzanne Brown fourth with 34 points to beat Maggie Penny, also with 34 points, into fifth position. Jane Glenn won the front nine and Heather Fleming the back nine. In the riverside 18 hole competition Clare Tweed emerged winner with Bertha Dalzell second.

Many thanks are due to businesses who sponsored individual holes in the competition.

PATRICK’S 43 TAKES SWEEP

Forty-three points from six handicapper Patrick Nichol was enough to win the Stableford Sweep at Royal Portrush. Playing over the Valley Links Patrick was one under par for the opening nine courtesy of his birdie four at the fourth..

Hamilton Orr fell just one short of the lead on 42 playing off five. His three at nine for birdie saw 20 points won for the front nine and he followed this with three consecutive birdies from the eleventh! In spite of not scoring at three holes Kevin Crowley still managed to score 41 points from his 21 handicap to finish third. Michael Baird and Eamon Leahy both hit 40 points for fourth and fifth.