Ballycastle Chronicle - Sports - Winter League gets underway at Ballycastle

Sports

Winter League gets underway at Ballycastle

Thursday, 12 January 2012

THE P.J. McIlroy & Son sponsored Winter League got under way at Ballycastle Golf Club over the weekend with 'Team Goosen' the early pacesetters.
Contributing for the leading team in week one were Jonathan McBride (39pts), team captain Derek Bell (34pts), Hugh Sayers (33pts), Eamon McIlroy (33pts) and Chris Kelly (30pts). The weekend stableford competitions were played over 14 holes but scores in the Winter League were increased pro rata to 16 holes.
Eamonn Hackett was the top scorer in Saturday's stableford section two competition with the 15 handicapper accumulating a fine total of 33 points.
Second place went to Derek Bell, also off 15, with a score of 30 points ahead of Jonathan McBride on count-back in third.
The top three in section one all returned scores of 30 points but when the back nines were compared, Sean McCormick, playing off 11, was declared the winner with 13 handicappers James McNeill and Colin Smyth in second and third places respectively. Congratulations go to Joe McClelland for his splendid hole-in-one made at the 10th hole on Saturday! Twos at the weekend were like hen's teeth with Terence Bakewell recording the only one on Saturday and Colum Egan making the only one on Sunday!
Jonathan McBride's excellent weekend continued on Sunday as the 18 handicapper picked up first prize in Sunday's section two stableford competition to go alongside his third place finish from the previous day. Second place went to Michael Campbell, playing off 15, who matched Jonathan's score of 34 points but couldn't quite match his back nine.
Gerry McGouran, playing off 11, won Sunday's section one competition on count-back from eight handicapper Andrew McConaghy after both golfers returned scores of 31 points.
The Scramble competition held at Ballycastle on New Year's Eve was won by the quartet of Patrick Dallat snr, Michael Dallat snr, Gerry Gillan and Seamus Hegarty who had six birdies in a score of 37.2 nett over the thirteen holes in play.
John Higgins jnr, Simon Lynn, Dessie Donnelly and Ivor Torrens had five birdies and an eagle in their round of 39.2 nett to finish in second place.
The first competition of 2012 was won by Tony Norris with 30 points over 13 holes followed by Raymond Brown in second place with 28 points and Colm Hendrie in third on New Year's Day with a total of 27 points.
There was a good turnout for the competition on Bank Holiday Monday with Paul Dillon returning 26 points over the 13 holes to finish in first place ahead of Seamus Killough and Niall Shivers on count-back.
Count-back was also required to determine the winner of the fourth and final prize on offer with Raymond Browne clinching it ahead of Gerry Norwood, Sean Dowds and Danny Taggart.