Castletown Golf Club
RIGHT RECIPE FOR JON WAGSTAFFE ON PRESIDENT’S DAY
Testing the new sprinkler system
Flat calm, parched fairways, wispy rough and well-tended greens; all the ingredients for good golf at Castletown Golf Links on Saturday. It was also encouraging to see a recuperating Barry Watts in attendance for his well-supported President’s Day event.
Poignantly, Watts was there to meet and greet everyone, offering refreshments and matching the funds being raised for Prostate Cancer UK. Mike Travers, Simon Boyd and Allan Thomsen were the recipients of the prizes for nearest-the-pin in two shots on the 4th, 11th and 17th holes respectively.
Big Jon Wagstaffe (10) - shown above- got the recipe right, winning the President’s Cup with an outstanding 45 Stableford points. His wonderful one over par round included three birdies which almost compensated for two bogeys and the slippery six sustained on the dog-leg 4th.
The early clubhouse leader with 41 was Mark Reynolds (10). Had he not started and finished with disappointing double bogeys Reynolds would also have shot gross 73. Despite those bunker-blues, Reynolds held on for second place by way of countback.
Having turned at luscious level par, Les Gales (12) topped the leaderboard with 24 points. A birdie followed by a nett birdie boosted his points to 31 after eleven holes. Alas, a blob at the next was replicated on the 18th, so Gales ran out of puff finishing third on 41.
A bountiful birdie on the 18th led to a lovely level par back-nine for Dan Williams (8). His backloaded 40 points gained him the remaining division one placement prize ahead of Neil Harris (4), Guy Pickard (6) and Frankie Doherty (10), who finished in that order.
A better back-six enabled Andrew Davies (14) to edge out Dave Evans (26) for second spot in division two. Both were rewarded on 39 points but the ineligible Simon Boyd (1) and Robert Braide (6) dipped out. 2025 Island Championship finalist Daryl Callister (+2) was a lowly 23rd with his 37 points but five birdies led to a best of the day gross 69 off the ‘big boys’ tees.
Oli Taylor (7) added to his burgeoning clubhouse credit by winning the Yellow-sponsored Wednesday mixed Stableford. His 38 points included a super, sub-par back nine and came off only sixteen holes as the 1st and 5th were temporarily out of commission.
Austin McGuire (9) secured second spot on Wednesday with 37 points. Rick ODonnell (11) landed the remaining division one placement prize on 35, courtesy of a better back nine than Neil Harris (3) who elegantly eagled the 12th.
Fourth-placed Keith Bernard (24), also with 35, topped division two. He was followed, three points behind, by Chris Westerman (17) and Pauline Mongan (36) who were the other prize winners in a field of 35 participants.
CGC President Barry Watts congratulating Mark Reynolds on his fine achievements.
Mark Reynolds had greater success in the previous Sunday’s Ramsey Crookall sponsored Stableford series. It was a 16-hole competition and Reynolds birdied a quarter of them to card a three over par lap worth 37 winning points.
Firing five birdies and just two bogeys, Simon Boyd’s tremendous three under par performance converted to 35 points and second place. Next, on 34, Tynwald president Laurence Skelly had failed to finish the 6th, but a four-pointer birdie on the 14th redressed the balance.
This coming Saturday is the J. Carter Trophy which was last won by the 2022 Island U’14 champion Matthew Bell. His 44 points was six clear of the field. Bell’s handicap index has since dropped to an impressive (1.7).
MALCOLM LAMBERT
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