Castletown Golf Club
RYAN JONES WINS THE CAPITAL INTERNATIONAL CASTLETOWN CUP
Ryan Jones (5) - shown above - shot 74 at his home club Peel GC in the morning and, having warmed up, was the runaway winner of the Capital International Castletown Cup at the links on Saturday afternoon.
Birdies on the par five 3rd and the Road Hole helped Jones turn at two under. Bogeys from bunkers on the 11th and shortened 17th resulted in a lovely level par round. After handicap, Jones was on his own on nett 67, three better than the field.
There was a four-way tie on nett 70 and another visitor, Ramsey GC’s Sebastian Thomas topped the lot with his 89/70 primarily because, after a somewhat indifferent outward leg, four of his six pars were carded on a much better back-nine.
The next two players had to be separated on their back-six scores. Jeff Magee used almost a third of his strokes in completing the 3rd and the 11th but only dropped three over the final six holes. Hence, after handicap, Magee’s 89/70 was marginally superior to fourth-placed Peter Easthope 77/70 who only dropped five shots overall and none over the last six.
John Ledwidge 86/70 was the countback casualty in more ways than one. Firstly, there was no two’s pot, so his tap-in on the 13th went unrewarded. Secondly, to accommodate two gross score prizes, there were only four placement prizes.
Former Castletown Cup winner Michael Charmer specializes in collecting ‘best gross’ prizes and did it again on Saturday. He rebounded from a dastardly double bogey on the Road Hole recording a lucrative level par.
Down in 33rd place Chris Kneen (+2) birdied the opening hole, dropped two on the next and then covered the rest in level par to pocket the ‘next’ best gross prize with his three-birdie, two-bogey 73. Over 25 percent of the 125 competitors failed to finish the course.
The previous weekend’s Neville Peterson Memorial winner Ernie Russell made it back-to-back wins, putting his way to success, this time in the Yellow-sponsored mixed midweek Stableford. Parring half his holes, Russell accumulated 42 points from his splendid twelve over par round.
As part of the competition the ladies were competing for the Stephen Trophy. This was emphatically won by Claire Walker who also came second overall after beating Les Gale on countback. Walker’s 40 points were 13 points clear of Diane Neale and Mary Halton who finished second and third in the Smith Trophy.
The previous Sunday’s Ramsey Crookall sponsored Stableford series event was won by Jon Wagstaffe with 32 points from 17 holes as the 15th was out of commission, He was followed by Ben Smaller on 28 and then Mitz Hayata who just edged out Zoe Campbell. They both scored 26 points.
This coming Saturday is the Canaccord Genuity Stableford which last year was won by Dan Williams with 41 points. The International Pairs Open in conjunction with the Alan Christian Cup is scheduled for Saturday 19th July. This is a regional qualifier, and the ultimate prize is a four-night trip to the World finals in Sun City, South Africa.
Elite golfers from across the island wishing to experience the ‘links effect’ can now also sign up for ‘The Old Tom’ 36 hole stroke play competition taking place from the back tees on Sunday 27th July. The entry fee for visitors is £70.
MALCOLM LAMBERT
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