Stephen’s early start tells a tale

Stephen’s early start tells a tale

5 July 2017

ARDGLASS Golf Club captain George Maxwell was on the first tee at 6am to see off the first of the competitors in his Captain’s Day competition last Saturday.

It was a beautiful sunny morning, with the Irish Sea glistening and the gentlest of breezes blowing — altogether a perfect day to play golf.

The early starters certainly made the most of the benign conditions, with all the top five finishers coming from these early starters.

Ballygowan man Stephen Harris started his round at 6.20 am with a no score ‘ding’ at the first hole — he was probably still half asleep — but he settled down to reach the turn with a total of 18 points.

From here on his round only got better and a brilliant finish with three birdies in the last five holes brought him in on 42 points and gave him the lead in the clubhouse.

In fact, the 13-handicapper was to remain at the top of the leaderboard for the rest of the day, despite another 240 or so competitors following him on to the course.  

Within an hour another 42 points appeared on the board as Donal Carabine’s score came in. The 12-handicapper had 21 points on each nine and was another who finished strongly, playing the last four in one-under. However, Harris still retained the lead with his better back nine. 

Half an hour later and another 42 points came in. Downpatrick man Christopher Prior, playing in his first Captain’s Day at Ardglass, had a superb gross round of 69, the best of the day. Playing off four, Prior was out in one-under and back in level par, finishing with a birdie at the last, but it was not good enough to dislodge Harris from the top spot.

In the meantime, Gary Doherty had come in with 40 points, adding to his 17 points after 10 holes with an amazing 23 points from the last eight.

An hour later Kevin Carville was also in with 40 points, the strongest part of his round being the last five holes played in two-under. 

By lunchtime the leaderboard read: 1st Stephen Harris,  2nd Donal Carabine, 3rd Christopher Prior, 4th Gary Doherty, 5th Kevin Carville. It stayed that way for the rest of the day as conditions worsened.

The only late players to threaten the leaders were Paul Rogan, whose 40 points put him in sixth place, and Brian O’Boyle, who came with 39 points, good enough in the end for him to take the seniors prize.

O’Boyle was also one of the players to take a nearest the pin prize, the others being Donal Carabine, Charlie Bell, Kevin McShane and Philip Smyth, while the big-hitting Paul Bell won the longest drive competition.

In the gross category, the reliable Daniel Vaughan took the honours with a round of 70 — an interesting round which contained seven birdies as well as seven bogeys. The runner-up in the gross section was Billy Blackwood whose round of 73 just edged out Raymond Madine on a count-back.

In the minor prizes, Peter Mulhall took the team captains’ prize with 35 points, Sean Murphy was the best of the past captains with 32 points, and Gareth McMullan won the council prize with 34 points. The guest prizes went to William Milligan and John Allen on 38 points and Deirdre Hanna on 37 points.

Additional winners were St Patrick’s captain Denis Tumelty, who took the visiting guest prize, and John Mornin, who was the 5/6 day members’ winner.