Beating elementsan achievement

Those who had taken out their Winter League cards during the week were certainly the lucky ones as Saturday’s golfers had to contend with heavy and persistent rain.
By The Newsroom
Published 13th Nov 2014, 08:00 BST
Paul LynessPaul Lyness
Paul Lyness

The two main prize winners were Saturday players and it is to their great credit that they returned 34 points each in such dreadful conditions.

A birdie-NR-double bogey start left Conor McEvoy, off 10, wondering what sort of round was coming but he needn’t have worried too much as he covered the remaining 11 holes in level par thanks to birdies at 8, 10 and 15, and bogeys at 9, 12 and 17. A 1 under par homeward journey yielded 19pts and secured victory.

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Just beaten into second place was Conor’s unrelated namesake Sean McEvoy. This was Sean’s first visit to the prizes in a long time and he will be regretting closing each half of his round with a double bogey.

Section 1 went to Paul Lyness with 33pts off 5. He opened and closed the back 7 with birdies which means he has now played his last 25 holes in 1 under par, suggesting he is in very good form at the moment.

Also in good form at the moment, and in fact almost always, is the very consistent George Harkness and he came second with 33pts off 7. He was just 2 over for the round and his bogeys at 14 and 15 were to prove costly.

Dermot Lavery will reflect for some time on his failure to score at the 17th as it left him empty handed with 32pts off 8. Martin Corey, Gregory Crawford, Olcan Kearney, Dominic Hatchell, Nicholas Campbell, Roy Hanna Jnr and Paul Dickson also left empty handed with 31pts each.

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Four players returned 33pts to battle it out for Section 2 with Nevan Lavery, 12, coming out on top. The back 9 hasn’t been kind to Nevan for some time now so he will be particularly pleased that his bogeys at 11 and 15 were his only dropped shots coming home.

Second place went to James McGarrell, 11, who has been playing very well recently. Four homeward bogeys denied him his chance of the top spot. The unlucky players on 33pts were Henry McAreavey, 10, and Tony Gallery, 9. This was the second time in a week that Tony’s back 9 has kept him down the pecking order but his day is undoubtedly coming.

John Healey, Neale McKinstry, Aodhan Scullion, Iain Mulholland, Barrai McConville and Dan McCool came close with 31pts.

The most striking feature of Bill Leslie’s recent scores has been the number of 7s, 8s and 9s among them, but there were no similar disasters yesterday as he took section 3 with 33pts off 13. He will have been delighted with his birdie at the 10th which began his homeward journey in style and he eventually claimed his prize over that stretch.

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Andrew Heasley, off 20, had to settle for the runners-up spot on the back 9 thanks to a double bogey at the 15th. Just out of the prizes on 32pts were Daire Hogan, Jim McCann Snr, Hugh O’Reilly and Barry Mulholland.

David O’Neill opens

up a four point lead

Week 3 of the Winter League and David O’Neill good form continues as he opens up a four point lead with 99 points over his nearest challenger Nevan Lavery on 95. The pack behind all in hot pursuit with seasoned campaigner George Harkness knocking on the door with 94 followed closely James Megarrell, Tony Gallery and Aiden Thornbury. Keep it going boys it’s your best five cards that will count.

Bridge results: N/S-1, T Rae and F Storey; 2, B Welsh and B McKavanagh; 3, G Turkington and E O’Neill; E/W-1, H Brangam & C Logan; 2, A Lamb and B McGrane; 3, S O’Neill and M Patterson.