Special fundraiser at Ballycastle

Congratulations go to organiser Lorraine Kane and her team for putting in a great deal of time and effort to make the day a success. All this hard work was rewarded with a beautiful, warm, sunny day and a good turnout of both members and visitors keen to support this worthwhile cause.

The format for Sunday’s competition saw teams of three or four taking part with the best three stableford scores on each hole counting.

At first glance, three teams had all returned scores of 125 points, but when the cards were checked, it was clear that the high temperatures on Sunday had left some with addled brains as the addition on two of these cards was incorrect!

This left as clear winners the quartet of Lawrence McQuillan, Seamus Killough, Danny Taggart and Vincent Dowds, one point ahead of Peter McMullan, Steven Devlin, Owen Kennedy and Andrew McConaghy in second place on 124 points.

Susan Davidson won the prize for the ladies longest drive at the 4th hole with Johnny Coyle proving there is life in the old dog yet by smashing his drive the best part of 300 yards to win the gents long drive competition.

There was also a keenly contested nearest the pin prize held at the par three 17th hole with the lead changing hands several times throughout the day before Peter O’Reilly claimed victory by knocking a superb tee shot to a distance of two feet, five inches.

There was hot scoring in Saturday’s stableford competition at Ballycastle Golf Club with Gabriel McCollum, playing off sixteen, the winner with a fabulous total of 46 points. Paul Loughrey took second spot with a fine score of 43 points with Mel Carleton in third after his one under par round also yielded 43 points. Fourth place went to Shay Paul Duffin with 42 points and fifth to Niall Hill also on a total of 42 points. Michael Dallat jnr. won the gross prize with 36 gross points and Neil McMaster was second with 35 gross points.

Ballycastle’s Pierce Purcell team slipped to a narrow defeat in their match against Cushendall at the weekend and the club’s Senior Cup golfers were up against a strong field and couldn’t quite manage to qualify from their section at Strabane Golf Club but it wasn’t all doom and gloom for club teams this weekend as the Ladies Meile Fourball Betterball team kept the flag flying with victory against Kilrea.

The Margy Cup takes place at Ballycastle Golf Club next Saturday.

On Sunday, the course is closed for the GUI Junior Cup qualification day.

The Ballycastle team tee off at 8.30am, best of luck to all involved.