Ballycastle Golf Club Competition Report

Team Daly, captained by Michael Campbell, picked up seven points at the weekend to give them a total of 59 points.

Team Azinger, captained by Francis McGinn, collected eight points to give them a total of 54 points and team Clarke, led by Club Captain Robin McHugh, were the top scorers this week to pull level with Azinger on 54 points.

Team Goosen, skippered by Derek Bell, currently lie in fourth place, only a single point behind Azinger and Clarke but team Immelman completely ran out of steam in week nine and they will require a Herculean effort over the final weekend to stand any chance of a top three team prize.

The situation looks increasingly grim for team Faldo at the foot of the table as Terry McNamara and his men have only accumulated 32 points at this stage and find themselves four points adrift of their nearest rivals, team Els and five points behind team Ballesteros.

The Winter League overall individual competition is going right down to the wire this year with Patrick Dixon from team Clarke and Declan McCarry from team Faldo tied for the lead, each with a best eight card total of 273 points.

Michael Close from team Immelman is also very much in the hunt with a best eight card total of 270 points.

Golfing conditions were tough on Saturday but the scoring was still very good with Jim McCann, playing off twenty-five winning the section two stableford competition with a fine score of 38 points over the sixteen holes.

It was a close run thing in the end as Aiden Higgins, playing off sixteen, also carded 38 points and also matched Jim’s last nine and last six scores but when the last three holes were compared, Jim just shaded it by nine points to seven.

In the section one competition on Saturday, twelve handicapper Ciaran McFarline was the winner with 35 points, Gerard Dowds, playing off thirteen, was second with 34 points and Michael Page, playing off eleven, was third with 33 points.

The weather improved on Sunday and the top three in the section one competition all recorded 37 points over the sixteen holes.

First place went to ten handicapper Martin Brogan thanks to his excellent back nine total of 22 points, second place went to Patrick Dallat snr, playing off twelve, with 21 points on the back nine and five handicapper Owen Kennedy finished third with 20 points on his back nine.

First place in section two went to Raymond Browne, playing off twenty-one, with a total of 36 points.

Liam Laverty, also off twenty-one, took second place on count-back from Barney McCahery after both golfers recorded 35 points.

Paul McKillen continued his excellent recent form by winning the midweek open stableford competition with an excellent score of 44 points for the eighteen holes.

John Callan was level par for his round and finished in second place with 41 points.

Steven Devlin took the third prize and Martin Morgan was fourth after both men recorded 39 points on Wednesday.

Members are reminded that the Winter League Dinner and Presentation of Prizes takes place on Saturday 24th March and those wishing to attend should enter their names on the sheets in the clubhouse.