Weekend Competition

The recent spell of great weather has attracted large numbers of competitors to the weekend competitions. Saturday’s competition was no exception and it was Robert Kennedy who finished ahead of the pile with his maiden win of the year.

With the pin on the top deck on the first hole and the hole playing into the wind, Kennedy like many before him opened up with double bogey six. But this was as bad as it got over the first nine as he racked up the pars and bogeys for a tasty 21 points.

He continued in a similar vein around the back nine and bar a few minor errors on 13 and 15 he clocked up another 19 points for a 40 point total to win by one from Damien Ralph.

21 handicapper Ralph endured a torturous front nine with, ironically a solitary par on the most difficult hole amongst a plethora of dings, bogeys and double bogeys. But some inspired golf on the back nine saw Ralph reel off five straight pars from the tenth to transform his card. He held it together over the last four holes with a solid finish up the last hole to beat Seamus Beattie on a countback.

Beattie, who has had a recent dip in form, appears to have his game back on track. The 24 handicapper picked up points at every hole and played the par threes in one over par, scoring 11 points for the four holes.

Paddy Clarke, Gerry Tierney, Billy Silcock and Joshua Lee all finished on 38 points. Off the four it was Clarke who took fourth spot ahead of Tierney on the better back nine. Clarke was in early 'point one back' territory after the first five holes standing on the sixth tee with a paltry six points. But some impressive golf, which included three birdies on the 11th, 13th and 18th gave him a 23 point back nine, five better than Tierney’s 18 points.

Seven twos were recorded, all on the sixth and 11th holes – Patrick McCarney, Robert Kennedy, Emlyn Agnew, Bill Robinson, John O’Neill, Jim McCourt and Paddy Clarke.

Horace Fleming Cup

Big hitting Paul Ramsey came out on top winning the Horace Fleming Cup as he continued his quest to get to single figures before the seasonal demise of qualifying golf competitions. Where mere mortals struggle to reach in two, ten handicapper Ramsey reduced many of the par fours to drives and wedges as he racked up 19 points on the outward nine.

An improved inward nine with seven pars and two bogeys added another 21 points for his 40 point total to win by three points from Ken Bownes.

Playing his first decent round of golf in years, Bownes didn’t get off to the flier he would have been looking for. But four double bogeys in the first five holes were soon a distant memory as he got his driving sorted out and reeled of the pars and bogeys over the remainder or his round, finishing strongly to beat Eugene Donohoe and Billy Silcock on a better back nine.

And again the only par threes to yield in the twos club were the 6th and 11th holes where Davy Truesdale, Stephen Gault and Wayne Balfour added to their accounts.

Archdale Cup Mixed Foursomes Matchplay.

The ever-popular Archdale Cup mixed foursomes matchplay attracted its largest entry on record this year. The usual suspects generally all had a good run in the competition with very few surprises in the earlier rounds. In the two semi finals the pairings of Micheal Keys & Barbara Thompson plus previous winners Gerry Tierney and Gladys Fisher won their respective matches. The final proved to be a closely contested affair with Micheal and Barbara one up at the halfway point. Gladys and Gerry were unable to reign them in and the match eventually finished on the 17th green where Micheal and Barbara won two and one.