Portstewart Ladies enjoy away weekend in County Louth

Sheila was joined by 47 members, and a good time was had by all.

The competition on Friday was won by Moraig McCrum with an excellent score of 41 points.

The main competition on Saturday was won by Doreen Fleming (17) with 38 points beating Suzanne Browne (23) into 2nd place on the back nine and 3rd place was Irene Murray (22) with 37 pts.

The gross prize was won by Lesley Hemphill (6).

The next event on the calendar is an Open Event the Aveline England Memorial Trophy on May 6.

A 37 point return from nineteen handicapper Shaun Hartin was enough to get his name inscribed on the Flowerfield Cup on Saturday at Portstewart.

The opening nine holes proved difficult for Shaun, it contained four single pointers and just one solitary three pointer, seeing him through the halfway point with just 15 points scored. Once he got started on the inward nine it was a different story, ten points came from the first three holes with a birdy two on twelve giving up four of them. Two points per hole from there allowed Shaun to add 22 to his card to push his tally to the winning 37.

Paul Chambers was hot on Shaun’s heels, just missing out by a point, on 36 points. He too found the front nine difficult to score on, a birdy two on the sixth balancing up his no score on five and a trio of one point holes meaning 15 points for the card. Paul scored well thereafter, taking nine points from ten to twelve, including a second two on the latter, before slipping up to not score on fifteen. One shot was dropped over the final three holes, adding eight points, giving Paul 21 back for his second place score of 36. In Section A Martin O’Kane’s 35 points secured the top slot. He had 16 points after nine with a blank on the short sixth and a birdy three on eight. He played the back nine in two over par to get 19 points for his card and ended the round with 35 for his prize. Angus Gamble had the second 36 points score of the day and that took him to the top of Section B. Angus parred the first two and last two of the front nine for four three pointers but dropped points with a six on the fifth and a blank on the sixth to get to the turn with 19 points scored. A brace blanks, thirteen and seventeen, blighted the card on the way in but Angus has collected 17 points in spite of those to sign up for 36 points.

Ansley Stewart came good in the Best Gross stakes with a round of 77. The difficult front nine took a few shots from Ansley, a seven on the long par four fifth being the main culprit, and saw him get to the halfway point with 41 shots played, five over par. The back nine was much steadier with a shot being picked up with a two on fifteen and a shot being lost with a five on seventeen, all the rest were parred for and inward nine score of level par 36 and an eighteen hole tally of five over par 77.

Robert Smyth’s journey over from Portstewart was a worthwhile one as he lifted first prize in Ballycastle’s Midweek Open Stableford.

Robert got off to a shaky start with a blank at the second but but recovered well andaided by a birdie at the par 3 tenth he managed to fend off the challenge of local member John Morgan who also finished with 42 points.

In third place was two handicapper Michael Dallat jnr who completed the course in a fine 3 under par to return a score of 41 points which was sufficient to beat Allan Mc Cook on countback.

Saturday saw the qualifying competition for the ever popular Silver Mounted Golf Ball match play foursomes.Despite strong winds & a return to near arctic temperatures Michael Lewis and his brother-in-law Martin McGuigan posted an amazing nett 62 to claim the top qualifying spot.

Jonathan Blair and Declan Mc Carry claimed the runner up position with a very creditable nett 64.

The top 32 pairings now qualify for the matchplay stages which will be played over the coming weeks .

Once again Portstewart Golf Club has kindly offered the Coleraine Hospice Group the proceeds of the Harriman Cup competition, a very popular open competition for men and women which is being held on Saturday, May 16 on the Strand links at Portstewart.

Hospice co-ordinator, Ailna Smyth says: “All the money raised through this event will be spent locally. Every year our hospice nurses care for over 900 patient referrals in the local area.”

Hospice members would like to thank all the business men who have already contributed and also to thank Portstewart Golf Club for their co-operation.

Anyone who would like to support the event or need s more information please call 70832735.