Higgins announces arrival at Raceview

Kevin Higgins announced his arrival in the Richie Clarion Audio sponsored competition at Ballymena Golf Club with a return of forty three stableford points which was one point ahead of the field.
Ballymena Golf Club.Ballymena Golf Club.
Ballymena Golf Club.

His opening nine hole score of one under gross equated to a total of twenty five points which was a cracking score for a twelve handicapper.

The closing nine was more like a handicapper of his standing where he had four pars, four bogeys and a double bogey on the seventh.

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Kevin almost threw a good round away as his final five holes read bogey, bogey, par, double bogey, bogey but despite this he managed to have a single point advantage over runner-up Stephen Campbell (13), Stephen’s front nine contained five pars plus four bogeys for twenty points while the back nine was made up of four pars, a birdie on the tenth and he had four bogeys of which the final three holes accounted for three of them but he had added twenty two points to that first nine total.

Third nett prize went to Ivan McMaster (16), with a total of forty one points and in that return he had a ‘ding’ on the fifth with the other eight holes produced eighteen points. The second nine was a different tale where he collected twenty three points having scored four pars, four bogeys plus a birdie on the par four fifteenth which was worth four points more.

Desmond Leemon (19) won the fourth nett prize with a total of forty points of which twenty two came from the front nine holes where he had four pars plus five bogeys. The back nine saw Des add eighteen points on despite having a non-score on the fifteenth. The fifth nett prize was won by Carl O’Neill (18), with a total of thirty eight points and on a better second nine from John Devlin (11). O’Neill left a lot of points on the course during his front nine where his lone par came on the first and a non-score on the sixth left him with only fifteen points going into the back nine. This saw a transformation in Carl’s game as he covered the nine with two pars, birdies on the fifteenth and seventeenth, bogeys on the 11th, 12th, 13th and 16th plus a double bogey on the last and all this resulted in twenty three points to add to that front nine total. John Devlin (11) also scored thirty eight points of which twenty were earned on the outward trip which played he played in three over gross. The inward nine resulted in five pars, double bogeys on the 11th and 17th and single bogeys on the 10th and 15th, Steven Smyth returned to claim the best gross prize where he played the course in one under gross. The three handicapper scored give pars one bogey plus birdies on the third, seventh and ninth on the outward nine, while the inward nine saw Steven drop one shot that being on the par three fourteenth while he parred the other eight.

Logan Sees victory in Specsavers

The Specsavers sponsored competition on Sunday, June 1 saw Stephen Logan (8), win with a total of forty points and one a better Eugene Reid (16). Stephen whose home club is Galgorm Castle opened with a first nine of five bogeys, two pars and birdies on the sixth and eight for nineteen Stableford points. The second nine was worth twenty one points which came from six pars, a dropped shot on the 14th and 15th and he ended his round in a blaze having birdied the last par that additional twenty one. Reid’s totals were in reverse to Logan having scored twenty one from the front nine and nineteen from the back nine. Steven Penny (2) made it a double for Galgorm when he won the best gross with a score of two over par seventy. Steven had seven pars, a dropped shot on the eighth which he retrieved with a birdie on the third on the front nine. The back nine added up to another seven pars plus bogeys on the eleventh and fourteenth.

Brian Craig tops in Montrose Open

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The Wednesday Open sponsored by Montrose Garden Centre was won by Brian Craig (24), with a total of thirty nine points and that included a ‘ding’ on the par three sixteenth where he had a triple bogey. The front nine yielded twenty one points while the back nine produced eighteen and that despite that non-score.

Second prize was taken by David Smith (6) who scored a total of thirty seven points which nineteen came from the back nine.

Smith scored eleven pars, a birdie on the 16th plus six bogeys in total. The Best Gross card was returned by Fred Dawson (6), who played the course to his handicap being six over seventy four shots.

Jimmy Carroll all Ireland seniors: Having qualified on the first stage the Ballymena team headed to Edenmore for the playoffs to go to Westmantown but they lost out to Rockmount by nine points with Ballyclare being third and Bangor were fourth. Rockmount scored 42,41,41 points of 3/4 of fall handicap.