Castletown Golf Club
TOP TEAMS TURN ON THE GAS IN SHAMBLES MULTIPLIER
An excess of wind deterred all but six intrepid groups from starting the 15-hole Shambles Multiplier at Castletown Golf Club on Saturday. A back-nine countback ensued as the top three teams each accumulated 79 points. The remaining teams scored 78, 68 and 64 respectively. Par for the course was 15 x 4 = 60.
Scoring eight birdies plus five nett birdies between them, the eventual winners, Guy Pickard (shown above), Stuart Campbell, Frankie Doherty and Andy Saunders managed to line them up on five occasions. Those resulting 9-pointers, two on the back-nine, contributed just over half their total score and compensated for the five holes where they dovetailed disappointingly.
In second spot, Martin Derbyshire, Pete Thomas, Dave Bowen and Mark Reid, only dipped below four points on two occasions. Their three 9-pointers were all booked prior to the turn where Reid had a remarkable run of four birdies in a row. With tee-shot choices diminishing, their back-nine scores only exceeded expectation on two occasions.
The third-placed team of Steve Zybert, Mark Teare, Andy Dent and Dandara’s managing director Austin McGuire had a three points lead at the turn thanks to a sensational 16-pointer on the Road Hole after nett eagles from Zybert and Dent. They failed to build on that lead and faded away with a 2-pointer and a singleton on the 15th and 17th respectively.
Perhaps the unluckiest quartet was fourth-placed Dave Evans, Richard Wild, Iain Quine and Dan Laughlin. They too scored 16 points on the 5th and had stacked up a leading 78 points with one to play. Unfortunately, the curse of the 18th came to haunt them. They failed to find the fairway or finish the hole and so slipped out of contention.
Nobody ventured out for the mid-week Stableford, but on the previous Sunday three desperados did. The boldest bandit was Matt Ascroft (5) who was luscious level par until he encountered the ‘gorge-us’ 18th. A double bogey finish still left him in the lead on 32 points.
Hindered by his (+5) handicap, former Castletown Cup winner Michael Charmer duly delivered the five birdies he needed to card. A niggly bogey on the 2nd was the only blemish in his fantastic four under par round for second place with 29 points. Ross Mulligan (+4), who was two over with two to play, registered N/Rs on the 17th and 18th and so came third.
This coming Saturday sees the fifth round of the Winter League which is currently led by William Laughlin with 33 placement points from his 4th and 2nd place finishes in rounds one and four respectively. Nick Maybin, who won round three and came 10th last time out, is a close second with 31 points. Trevor Boyles and Neil Harris are joint third with 25 points from their wins in rounds one and four respectively.
MALCOLM LAMBERT
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