JR McMahon competition is tailored for winner Garfield

The annual competition sponsored by J R McMahon was played on Saturday at Lurgan Golf Club with Garfield Bell coming out on top with a stylish round 42 points off a 9 handicap.
By The Newsroom
Published 27th Jul 2016, 13:00 BST
Updated 25th Aug 2016, 17:38 BST
Muriel Gamble, secretary manager at Lurgan Golf Club receiving sponsorship from Stephen MacFarlane of J R McMahon Menswear, Lurgan.Muriel Gamble, secretary manager at Lurgan Golf Club receiving sponsorship from Stephen MacFarlane of J R McMahon Menswear, Lurgan.
Muriel Gamble, secretary manager at Lurgan Golf Club receiving sponsorship from Stephen MacFarlane of J R McMahon Menswear, Lurgan.

The runner-up was Steven Mulvenna who must be a strong contender for Golfer of the Year.

Of his 28 qualifying outings this year he has equalled or bettered his handicap 16 times

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On this occasion he had 41 points off 6, and having opened the season playing off 8.4, he now stands at 5.0.

Nevan Lavery, 14, Martin McNeice, 11, and Paul Best, 12, came 3rd, 4th and 5th respectively with 40 points each.

In the low section John O’Neill took the honours with 38 points off 6, successfully holding off the challenge of five other players on a similar total.

The middle section went to Johnny McEvoy with 40 points off 13, while Andrew Heasley took the high section with 38 points off 25.

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Michael McSherry notched up another gross prize with a level par round helped by four birdies.

Peter Kennedy picked up his second trophy of the year last week when he added the Gerry O’Neill Trophy to his Malcolm Trophy success in May.

Playing off 5, his was the best back 9 of four players who returned 39 points.

Gavin Smyth, 11, Niall Hoy, 9, and Brian Scullion, 4, took 2nd, 3rd and 4th places respectively according to the strengths of their homeward journeys.

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The low section went to Michael Downey with 38 points off 5, middle section to Eamonn McCarron with 38 points off 14, and high section to Cahal McEvoy with 37 points off 20.

Two young players rather stole the show in Wednesday’s Sweep with 44 points each. Aaron Callaghan got his long summer holidays off to a good start when he took the top prize off 14, a birdie at 10 being the highlight of an almost fault free round.

And talking of good starts, Ciaran Seeley could not have started his round any better when he holed his opening tee shot for the first hole in one at that hole any of us can remember.

By the time he reached the 11th tee he was 7 under par and it was bogeys at 12, 14 and 16 which saw him tour the course in just 66 shots for 44 points and second place.

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Third place went to the ever consistent Fintan McCann with 40 points off 13. The last three nett prizes went to John Hartnett, 9, Sean Conlon, 24, and Kieran Kearney, 11, in that order. The gross went to Michael McSherry with 34 gross points.