North Western Golfing Alliance members usually arrive at Narin/Portnoo Golf Club well wrapped up and prepared for the worst of weather.
For their experience over the past few years has been that they have been greeted with heavy downpours of rain usually accompanied with gale force winds but, not on Saturday, as the course was in happy mode and at her most alluring and beguiling, having relented from her aggressive welcome of previous years to display herself at her most benign and tender.
[adrotate group=”53″]In saying that, apart from two members in the gross section and one in the nett, the members could not take advantage of the relatively calm conditions and returned very modest scores, even though the front nine returns showed promise but most of the field faded on the more difficult back nine.
Pride of place once again went to Brian McElhinney [NW] who, for the third outing in succession, spreadeagled the field and continued his rich vein of form as, once again, he ‘came in’ under par for his round. Brian is now eleven [11] under par for the Alliance season and has dropped only one stroke in 54 holes of golf on three different Donegal courses. Playing his usual unflappable, steady golf, Brian picked up his two birdies at the par five 13th and the par four 18th for a gross 71, [-2].
[adrotate group=”38″]Hotly pursued by Noel Callan [FV], who started with a birdie at the first only to give it back at the par five 2nd, a further dropped stroke at the par four 6th left Noel one [1] over for the outward nine and, unfortunately, further blemishes were added to his card following dropped shots on the 11th and 14th holes. Noel then regained those shots with birdies at 13th,15th and 18th, leaving him one under [-1] for the back nine and level par for the round. Noel is also a teaching professional so these two men, Noel and Brian, are really practicing what they preach
In the nett section, our 2015/16 season captain David Forbes also left the rest of the field toiling in his wake as his return of 19pts on the front nine and 21pts on inward nine, which included a ‘blank’ at the par five 14th, put him four points ahead of runner-up Clive Davison who is beginning to show a welcome return to form.
In the race for golfer of the year the nett section, as ever, is very close with Brian McElhinney, despite playing off +3, leading the way on 16pts, Dennis Porter from Strabane G.C. standing next with 14pts, third and fourth positions being held by Anthony Jackson from Foyle GC. and Kevin Keegan playing out of Strabane GC. on 10pts.
[adrotate group=”46″]The clear Gross leader is, of course, Brian McElhinney sitting with 30pts, Michael McGeady from SD Golf Academy .com on 16pts, Steve Martin from Foyle GC. is on 14pts and Brendan McCarroll snr. Ballyliffin GC. on 10pts.
Full results as follows:
NORTH WESTERN GOLFING ALLIANCE
played at
Narin/Portnoo Golf Club
Saturday 22nd October
[par 73; c.s.s.. 73]
Nett Section:
1st David Forbes (8) Faughan Valley GC. 40 pts
2nd Clive Davison (11) Portsalon GC. 36 pts
3rd Odran McGettigan (26) Strabane GC. 35 pts
4th Stephen MacLochlainn (8) North West GC. 34 Pts [b.o.t].
5th Gregory McGlinchey (14) Faughan Valley GC. 34 Pts
Gross Section:
1st Brian McElhinney (+3) North West GC. 71;
2ND Noel Callan (scr) Faughan Valley GC. 73;
3rd James Kelly (3) Foyle GC. 77;
4th Keith Lapsley (4) Dunfanaghy GC. 80;
5th John G.McBride (scr) Portsalon GC. 81;
“2”s: B.Ramsay; P.MacLochlainn; N.McCrory; T.McFarland; B.Wallace.
The next competition will be held in Ballyliffin Golf Club “ Old Links” on Saturday 5th November 2016.
