Everyone utilizing the green tees should make it easier to determine who has won what at Castletown Golf Links. That was not the case on Saturday as eleven players disputing second and third places split over two divisions resulted in convoluted countback calculations that had to be done manually. Hopefully, ongoing teething troubles in setting up the ‘Golf Genius’ competition criteria will soon be a thing of the past.
However, the clear winner of Winter League round one on Saturday was Sam Murray (16), son of Simon who is the newly nominated vice-captain 2027. Sam’s 40 Stableford points included birdies on the 4th and 7th, seven pars, five nett pars and three bogeys. Only four slippery sixes and his triple bogey on the 11th mucked-up Murray Jnr’s journey to his first sub-80 round.
One stroke behind, honorary secretary Peter N. Thomas (15) and Terry Ditchfield (8) had to be separated by their back-six scores. Both stepped in with 39 points, split 22/17. Thomas fired a four over par front nine and a birdie on the 10th brought him back to just three over. Had Thomas not ‘tanked’ the 18th he could have won the event.
Third placed Ditchfield birdied the 1st, eagled the 3rd and nabbed the nearest-the-pin (NTP) prize with his tap-in birdie on the 8th. Out in level par, Ditchfield also birdied the 10th but a single point on the 11th, followed by a par on the 12th, were crucially counter-productive for back-six countback purposes, although he did top division one.
Three fellows finished on 38 points. Fourth overall, Michael Kinmond was rewarded with second place in division one and Pete Thomas collected the final division two prize so, despite his 38, Warren Rainey (9) missed out. There was then a six-way photo-finish on 37 points and only the final podium place in division one to fill.
David Bowen (14), Richard Wild (13) and John Ledwidge (10) were ineligible, so the spoils went to Oli Steriopulos (8) with his (18 +19 split). Tommy Doherty (3) came next with (21 +16) and was followed by Alan Rowe (2) who couldn’t capitalize on his amazing three-under-par front-nine and faded to (22 +15).
Daryl Callister collected the best gross prize with his one-over-par 73 and Tom Doyle launched the longest drive on the 7th to bag his box of balls. Other sleeves went to David Allan who landed closest on the 8th and Jaco Jansen was three inches short of a hole-in-one on the 16th.
Good midweek weather enticed 25 out for the mixed Stableford which was won by Colin C Magee with 39 points. Kyle McConnell came a close second on the same score. Andrew Gerrard topped division one with 38 points and Keith Bernard filched fourth on 37. The remaining division one placement prizes were taken by Roger Raatgever and Paul Keeley on 36 and 35 points respectively. Michelle Hooker, Stephen McCafferty and Rich Dunn, who finished in that order, also carded 35s.
There were 19 takers for the previous Sunday’s Stableford and Hannah Noon -shown above- had the bragging rights as her 98, nett 66, was worth 43 points, which was six better than husband Robert in third on 37. Mind you, Robert was playing off (+6) and went round in a mind-blowing seven-under-par 65. Completing the Noon sandwich, Shanon James squeezed 39 points from 16 scoring holes to secure second spot.
This coming Saturday there may be a few sore heads for the 4 clubs and a putter challenge because the club’s annual dinner and prize presentation takes place at King William’s College on Friday 13th. If you can’t attend that, there is always the £40 Beaujolais Day three-course meal at the Salt & Swing Café on the following Friday. The afternoon golf competition is purely optional.
MALCOLM LAMBERT