Hugh Burns off the competition

Golf

Ballycastle Golf Club Competition Report

HUGH Burns was the clear winner in section one of the stableford competition held at Ballycastle Golf Club on Saturday with an excellent score of 38 points.

Second place in this section went to George McVeigh with 35 points and third went to Danny Taggart also with a score of 35 points over sixteen holes.

In Saturday’s section two competition, Sean McLean took top spot on count back from Johnny Dowds after both players had returned scores of 36 points. Third place went to James Fitzsimons with a total of 35 points.

Shay Paul Duffin proved that last Sunday’s success in the section one competition was no fluke by carding 38 points to win for the second week in a row. Gerry Dowds returned a score of 37 points on Sunday and this secured him second place in the competition.

In section two, Raymond Brown carded 37 points and finished in first place with Jonathan McBride in second spot on a total of 36 points.

The halfway mark has now been reached in this year’s Winter League at Ballycastle with team H opening up a bit of a lead after they collected maximum points in week four with a five card total of 171. Team E are in second position but have fallen six points behind the leaders with team L a further five points adrift in third.

The league has now been divided into two halves for the remainder of the competition with teams K, J and A joining H, E and L to make up the top section.

These teams are now safe from the threat of the wooden spoon this year and they keep the team points accumulated so far as they continue to battle for a top three prize in the final four weeks.

Team G fought valiantly to escape out of the bottom half this week, picking up eleven points, but unfortunately fell one point short of safety and now must take on teams B, C, F, I and D in a four week sprint to avoid the ignominy of the wooden spoon. The teams in the bottom half will have their team points reset to zero from next week and there will be a prize for the team that finishes top of this section at the end of the four weeks.

The Winter League Dinner and Presentation of Prizes is scheduled to take place on Saturday 20 March, further details will be posted on the competition notice board.