Seamus slays the field to win Terry’s Captain’s Day

Seamus slays the field to win Terry’s Captain’s Day

8 July 2015

SEAMUS O’Hare won Terry Murphy’s Captain’s Day prize at Ardglass Golf Club on Saturday when 260 members and guests took part with the winner’s 39 points good enough to give him his first captain’s day prize.

  The 6am starters got the worst of the weather, but early morning rain died away to give a relatively bright and dry day for most of the players. 

However, with the tees set well back and a strong wind blowing, conditions were far from easy, especially on the opening holes.

Conditions kept the scores down throughout the day and any score better than 36 points was a good one. A testament to the difficulty of the conditions was the fact that the majority of the top prizewinners were single-figure golfers. 

O’Hare, a seven-handicapper from Loughinisland had a remarkable eight pars in his opening nine holes to be out in one-over. 

A few slip-ups on the inward nine were offset by a birdie at the 15th for a superb round of 14 pars and a finishing gross score of 74.

The nearest challenger to O’Hare was Leitrim man Jim Cunningham. The nine-handicapper got off to a shaky start, but still managed 18 points on the opening nine. A strong homeward nine of 20 points, with a birdie at the 14th, gave him a total of 38 points, and second place.

In third place was Sean Looby. Looby had 20 points at the turn, but an unfortunate run at holes 11, 12 and 13 set him back a little. Two closing pars helped him to 38 points, but Cunningham’s superior back nine gave him the edge.

Gerry Shields came home in fourth place. Shields failed to score at the first and ped three further shots in the next four holes before he steadied the ship. However the rest of the 10-handicapper’s round was almost impeccable and saw him return a total of 37 points.

Also on 37 points and taking fifth place was another of the low men, Gareth Donnelly.

The Crossgar man was four over after six holes, but consecutive birdies at the 8th and 9th brought him back to two-over at the turn. 

Despite a dropped shot at the next, he played the final eight in level par for a round of 73, the second best gross of the day.

Unluckily, relegated from the prizes on count back were Nicholas Evans and Conor McConvey, both of whom also returned 37 points.

No fewer than a further eight players finished on 36 points, but at least some of them had the consolation of picking up minor prizes. Among them was MUSA captain Aiden Walshe, who overcame a few shaky opening holes to take the team captain’s prize. John F Rice will be regretting a double bogey finish, but his 36 points was good enough for the seniors’ prize, while Stephen Harris took the special prize for those club members who had acting as course marshals during the recent Irish Open. 

Others finishing on 36 points were Jim Curran, Des Tohill, Paul Gribben, Willie Carville and Jonathan Lennon. Big-hitting Lennon’s consolation was winning the longest drive competition with a massive effort at the ninth.

Daniel Vaughan won the best gross prize by a clear five shots with a magnificent round of 71. The plus-one handicapper carded two birdies, 13 pars and three bogeys in his one-over round. Julien Swail just pipped Gary Hamill to the second gross prize with his round of 76.

Also in the prizes were Kevin Carville (past captains), Gerry Keenan (council), Gerry Vaughan (first guest), Sean Murphy (second guest) and Ian Coyle (visiting guest).