Darren wins the Rover Cup in style at Lisburn GC

The weather has been so good in the past four weeks that the golf course has been playing as well as in mid-summer as was shown by the scoring in the last medal play competition of the season.

This competition for the Rover Cup attracted 192 competitors despite the alternative attraction of watching the Ryder Cup on TV. The scores from this competition also contributed towards the Mooney Cup which is awarded to the player with the best 4 rounds in the selected 6 stroke play competitions held over the season.

At 5.30pm Gary McCambley (13) was sitting in the clubhouse, top of the leaderboard with a nett 66, a seemingly unbeatable score, only to find later that he was pushed into third place by two better scores. First John Kelly (17) produced a personal best gross of 82 which gave him second prize and then Darren Montgomery (16) produced a gross 80 (net 64) to win the trophy. His round included three birdies in the front nine at holes 1, 4 and 6. Darren’s handicap is now reduced to 13 following this round.

Gary Campbell (9) has been playing well recently. Entering this competition he was tied top of the Mooney Cup table along with Richard McDermott (6). Unfortunately for Richard, he had an off day and left the door open for Gary. However, Darren Montgomery’s excellent round hoisted him into second place overall. Gary’s Mooney Cup victory was not assured until he produced another fine round of 75 (net 66). As it turned out he had 6 strokes to spare and anything above a net 72 would have dropped him to second place. The highlight of Gary’s round was an eagle 3 at the 503 yard hole 12. Gary’s score was also good enough to win the gross prize in the Rover Cup competition. Gary’s handicap is now 7.

The mid-week stableford competition saw several players contending for the Wednesday Cup, this being the last round for this event. Going into the final round Tom Beattie (17) had a clear lead over the nearest contenders Michael Rooney (19) and Colin Reid (8). 35 points from either of these contenders would have given them victory provided Tom would not improve on his worst score of 35 pts. Alas Michael’s 32 pts and Colin’s 34 pts were not good enough particularly when Tom consolidated his position with 37 points on the day to give him a total of 149 pts for his 4 best rounds.

The best round of the day was from Conor Watson (23). After a shaky start with only 1 point after 2 holes, he steadied the ship to score 40 points and become the clear winner. Three players scored 38 points. Ken Doherty (25) took second place ahead of Roy Welsh (19) with a better last 6 holes. Gary Moore (18) was the unlucky one not to be on the prize list. Conor Watson’s week was then crowned with another excellent round 3 days later on Saturday. This time playing off 21 he returned another net 68 which earned him an exceptional scoring reduction and he is now playing off 19.

The Eddie Press Memorial Trophy was won by Ryan Symington (-1), brother of Alastair Symington who won the trophy last year. Ryan just pipped Norman McNellis (3) by the narrowest of margins with 65% rounds within the SSS+2 against Norman’s 62%. David McCallister who came close last year was third on 60%.