‘Windy’ day at Portstewart

This after winning the Club Championship for the eighth time! Mark opened his round with a couple of pars before the third took a shot off him. This was not redressed until the seventh, a par five, gave up a birdy. Once mark got the taste he added another with a three at the eighth. A par four to close the nine left him with 20 points, one under par gross.

His five at ten was to be the last shot he dropped, a birdy four at fourteen took his tally to one under par again and another bird came with a three at sixteen to go two under. Two steady pars to finish added another 20 points for his 40 tally and a stroke score of two under par 70.

Johnny McCartney was runner up for the day scoring 38 points. He was compiling a steady front nine until he got to the fifth, the hardest hole on the course, where the eighteen handicapper scored a birdie three for four points! A couple more three pointers got him 20 points for the outward nine. Homeward bound after that, Johnny added a number of three pointers but up came seventeen and eighteen and no more points were forthcoming.

The money had probably been won by that stage! Anyway he finished on 38 points and his back nine of 18 pushed Robert Rainey, also 38, into top of the High Section. An early birdie three, at the second, got Robert up and going and he repeated the four pointer at the eighth.

The Ahoghill man had 22 points bagged at the turn and the good form continued with eight points being plucked from the next three holes. Then came the two par fives; no points from either! As with the runner up, the match must have been over and the profits pocketed. Fifteen sixteen and seventeen saw a return to scoring with eight points added but eighteen saw another blank on the card. Sixteen back and 38 total gave Robert his prize and he went on to tinkle the ivories later that evening entertaining Portpatrick Dunskey Golf Club’s visiting party.

John Cameron took the plaudits in the Low Section on 37 points off his mark of nine. A couple of blank holes on the way out were balanced up by two good birdies, a four at seven and a three at the eighth this allowed John to grab 18 points out. His back nine was a steadier affair with no blank holes and no birdies, he had a couple of single pointers late on but a larger number of threes appeared on the card for 19 more points.

Best Gross prize went to Mark Kilgore for his return of 77. After bogeying the two opening holes Mark had a series of pars before his first birdie came with a four at the seventh. A nasty six at eight did him no favours as he finished the nine on 39, three over par. The long thirteenth gave him anther birdy before he dropped another two shots at the short fifteenth. a steady par, par finish put Mark on 38 back for his five over par 77.