McLean sweeps up at Ballycastle

On International Left-Handers’ Day, Southpaw Sean, playing off twenty-three, birdied the second hole on his way to an astonishing twenty-five points on the front nine and he could even afford a blank at the final hole in a back nine of seventeen points and still come out on top!

Brothers Liam and Brendan McGarry carded excellent scores of 41 and 39 points respectively to finish in second and fourth places on Saturday with Tommie Simpson in between them in third on 40 points. Paul Surgenor picked up the fifth place prize ahead of James McKay and Aiden Higgins on count-back after all three returned scores of 38 points.

Francis McGinn had the best gross score on Captain’s Day with 34 gross points, one point ahead of Rory Gallagher in second place. Mary T. McKiernan won the Ladies prize with 36 points, Gerard Dowds won the Past Captain’s prize with 35 points and John Morgan was the winner of the Veteran’s prize with 34 points ahead of Dennis Devine on count-back. Ryan McKay collected the Junior prize with 33 points while the front and back nine prizes were picked up by Aiden Higgins and Raymond Browne with scores of 22 and 21 points respectively.

Edgar laid on a very enjoyable Captain’s Visitors Day at Ballycastle on Thursday with Royal Portrush Captain Philip Tweedie winning the visitor’s competition ahead of Adrian McNeice, Captain of Portstewart in second place. In the member’s competition, Liam made it a winning double for the McLean’s this year, finishing in first place ahead of Owen Kennedy on count-back.

Philip Tweedie collected the prize for nearest the pin at the 17th hole and Mel Carleton took great satisfaction from out-hitting Club Professional Damien McEvoy to claim the longest drive prize on the 18th! The old adage ‘you drive for show, but you putt for dough’ rang true however as Damien went on to complete the course in a magnificent five under par 66!

Declan McCarry, playing off seventeen, won Sunday’s Stableford competition at the club with a fine score of 43 points. Like Sean McLean the previous day, Declan had the luxury of taking a blank on the final hole and still winding up with the victory. Fresh from his big hitting exploits on Thursday, Mel Carleton finished in second place on Sunday with 40 points, Francis McGinn continued his blistering season by taking third also on 40 points and Billy McKelvey won the fourth prize, ahead of Roland Kearns after both golfers recorded 39 points.

Michael Dallat snr achieved an incredible hole-in-one at the seventeenth on Sunday. Remarkably, this was Michael’s second ace in little over a month as he also made one at the thirteenth during Open Week!