Silver for Lisburn in Ulster Fourball final and Dale gets first hole in one

Castle Hume had won the first leg by 5 matches to nil and were 15 holes up. The return leg was never going to be easy. In the lead match Sam Moore & Eddie Rowan came from one down to win 2 up. Billy Friars and Ciaran Lyness, out second, were always in control winning by 4&3. Barry Cathcart and David Payne secured a third win for Lisburn at the 17th to put the score at 5-3 for Enniskillen. The two matches still on the course were evenly balanced but with holes running out for Lisburn it became clear that even if they won the last 2 matches, there were insufficient holes left to secure victory for Lisburn.

These matches were called in and the competition referee Patsy McCaffrey on behalf of GUI called the final score at 6-4 in favour of Castle Hume. Mr. Peter Sinclair (Chairman of Ulster Branch of GUI) was on hand to congratulate both teams and to make the presentation of the gold medals to the Castle Hume team and the silver medals to the Lisburn team in the club house afterwards. Paul Smyth the team captain of Lisburn has clearly done a great job with the Lisburn team in reaching the quarter finals in 2011, the semi-finals in 2012 and the final in 2013.

Dale Myles scored a hole in one at Lisburn golf club on Saturday 21st September whilst playing in the club’s BTNI Cup fourball better ball competition. After playing golf for more than 50 years, Dale, a past captain and trustee of the Lisburn club, scored his first ever hole in one at the 13th hole. Uncertain, which club to take he pulled out his rescue club hit it through the gap between the bunkers and as he turned to put his club in the bag, his playing partner Greg Ferris declared that the ball had gone into the hole. Needless to say, Dale was still in the clubhouse for the rest of the day celebrating his achievement in the time honoured tradition. The competition itself was won by Gary Campbell and Sam McCallister with 46 points. Greg Ferris and Dale Myles and Uel Graham and George Heatherington both scored 45 points with the former pair taking second prize on the countback.

The Cowdy District Seniors event was held at Ashfield on 17th September. Lisburn represented by Marshall McConnell, Greg Ferris, Fred Walsh, David Gardiner, Derek McAfee and Sam Moore secured third place with 154 points on their best 4 cards. The winners were Concra Wood with 159 points and Mannan Castle took runners up with 158 points.

On 18th September, Stephen Leathem (9) had a dream round in winning the Wednesday Stableford event. After parring the first 10 holes, he dropped 2 shots at hole 11, then proceeded to string together 3 birdies followed by a 5,5,4,2 finish and a total of 72 gross and 45 stableford points. Mervyn Mawhinney (14) was second with 42 points and Sam Moore (18) with 40 points came third on the count back ahead of Neil Roulston (8) also on 40 points.

The Autumn Open attracted 109 players on 22nd September. All the prizes were won by Lisburn players. John Walker (23) took first place from Gary Hewitt (12) on a countback, both players having had 41 points. Third place was again decided on the countback with Michael Bryson (5) being the best of 3 players on 39 points.

The first of the clubs knock-out competitions was decided on Saturday when Colin Reid (11) defeated Bryan Heatherington (5) in the final of the McKee Cup by 3 and 1. Gary Morrow (3) had the difficult problem of giving 13 strokes to big hitting Phillip Sanaghan (16) in the final of the Musgrave Cup. The match ended on the 18th green where Phillip won 1 up and his first individual trophy at Lisburn Golf Club.