McGarry cruises to victory in Gribben memorial event

The Jimmy Gribben memorial trophy was the silverware up for grabs, with the trophy donated in memory of a gentleman who represented Ballymena Golf Club in inter-club competition on many occasions.
Gerry McCann, Tam Diamond, Peter McCann and Sammy Carleton ready to tee off at Ballymena Golf Club in the Jimmy Gribben Memorial event. INBT 37-912HGerry McCann, Tam Diamond, Peter McCann and Sammy Carleton ready to tee off at Ballymena Golf Club in the Jimmy Gribben Memorial event. INBT 37-912H
Gerry McCann, Tam Diamond, Peter McCann and Sammy Carleton ready to tee off at Ballymena Golf Club in the Jimmy Gribben Memorial event. INBT 37-912H

Appropriately, the winner was Sean McGarry (4), who played with Jimmy in the Raceview club’s Senior Cup team.

Sean had the best possible start to his round with birdies at the opening two holes.

He added three pars along with bogeys at the fifth and eighth which he retrieved with further birdies at the seventh and ninth to be two under after the front nine.

The back nine produced six pars and a bogey on the par three 14th, but this was more than compensated for with birdies at the 16th and 18th holes to finish his round three under par, equating to a total of 43 stableford points.

Second placed Roy Worthington (23) returned 39 points, of which 22 came from the second nine holes after a fairly mediocre opening nine.

However, that strong second nine saw him record a better second nine score, by five points, from Paul Darragh (6), who had played the opening nine holes in one under par gross, for 22 points.

Fourth nett was Mark Surgenor (7) who has enjoyed a fine summer and his handicap has dropped by around seven shots in the past year.

His second nine of 20 points was better than club vice-captain Henry Eagleson (9) who could only follow up his 22-point haul for the opening nine holes with a further 16 on the homeward stretch.

In contrast, sixth placed winner James H Hanna reserved his best performance for the closing nine holes where he plundered an excellent 24 points, but might well rue an opening nine which yielded just 13 points.

Gary Black once again won the best gross category with a round of one over par 69 shots, while another noteworthy performance came from Gordon Caldwell, who scored a hole-in-one.

HOLT SHIELD

Ballymena’s Holt Shield team put up a good fight in the second leg of the final away to holders Carrickfergus.

Having lost out 3.5-1.5 in the first leg, Ballymena were given hope when Craig McCartney (2/1) and Paul Stevenson (4/3) won the opening two games.

Adrian Gough lost out 6/5 while Adam Barr went down 5/4 and Jake Carson was one up with three to go when he was called in, with both players settling for a half.

OPEN STABLEFORD

The open stableford on Wednesday, September 17, resulted in a win for Mervyn Arbuthnot (14) who posted a total of 36 points, after having scored 22 on the front nine.

Second prize went to Ronnie Mitchell (17) who returned 34 points in around in which he failed to score at the eighth and 17th holes.

SUNDAY OPEN

The Sunday open stableford on the 21st was won by George Horner (12) with 39 points.

Second place was taken by John A Jamieson with 38 points from equal nines of 19 points.

The best gross return came from Blair Jamieson (8) with a round of 75 strokes.

LADIES

Jacqui Reid was in winning form in last week’s Harvest Basket Stableford event.

She completed her 18 holes with a brilliant 40 points, finishing two clear of her nearest rival.

Jacqui Brown won Section A with 37 points, while Margaret Logan (38) took the honours in Section B and Gillian Fraser (37) was best in Section C.