Johnny in the clear at Rathmore

Five bogies and five pars gave the thirteen handicapper 20 points for the outward nine and a nice birdie four at the long tenth put him further ahead of the course. Johnny’s only slip of the round came with a six at the par four sixteenth, but he calmed himself and ran out the nine with an additional 20 points to finish on 40 and stay one in front of Dennis Liken.

Dennis double bogied the par four seventh but scored well otherwise to gather 20 points out of the nine holes. A run of bogies during the back nine curtailed his scoring and, with 19 points won, Dennis took second place on countback but missed out on the top spot by a point. David Cameron was in third spot with another 39 points off his mark of five. Birdies at four and five evened up bogies at eight and nine and gave David 21 points for his card. A birdie three came at the seventeenth but this time the bogies outweighed the birds and ‘only’ 19 points were added.

Three 38 pointers took the three remaining places and Jimmy Magill was the best of these. A bad start, with a six at the opening hole, but Jimmy bagged a birdie three at the fifth to help him on his way to 19 points for the nine. a three for a birdie at sixteen and a good two to finish gave Jimmy a matching pair of 19 ppoints for both nines.

Ronnie Porter was the middle ‘38er’ and had a similar start to Jimmy, six the first. He also blanked the seventh but still mustered 20 points for the front nine. an unfortunate double bogey six at twelve kept his back nine score down to 18 points. Ian Pritchard was the final placing with his 38 points. A three at the last hole of the front nine for 22 points and a blank at the end of the back nine for 18 were the high and low lights of Ian’s round.

Alan Haslam, had he remembered to return his card, would have featured in the charts with 38 points scored. His position as Match and Handicap secretary has not been affected by this lapse.