Hole-In-One for Ballymena Golf Club member George McCrea (93)!

BALLYMENA Golf Club recently held two of its memorial events side-by-side with the Adrian Gribben competition open to all and the Frank Gribben qualifier restricted to those members fifty-five years and above.

The Adrian Gribben Memorial had a popular winner in the remarkable George McCrea who at 93 years of age continues to play golf to a high standard and at an enviable pace.

Teeing off in one of the first groups out George (21) returned a great score going round the Raceview course in twelve over gross in a round which included a hole-in-one at the par three seventh

McCrea started his round with a par on the first but then had an unfortunate treble bogey on the par three second.

A bogey on the par five third was followed by a par on the par three fourth and bogeys on the difficult fifth and sixth holes.

Then came that remarkable hole-in-one, a feat that apparently insurance companies rate at 1:12500 for the average club golfer, which George followed up with pars on both the par four eighth and the par five ninth.

That burst left McCrea four over gross at the turn with three of those dropped shots coming at that unfortunate par three second.

The opening three holes of the back nine are typically three of the tougher holes on any given day and McCrea bogeyed the par three tenth and the long stroke index one eleventh before having two double bogeys in a row.

Again McCrea did not let this unsettle him parring the two hundred yard par three fourteenth, bogeying the difficult fifteenth and parring another long par three at the sixteenth.

A bogey on the seventeenth and a closing par left McCrea with a gross 80 and a winning net 59. A superb performance from McCrea enhanced by that hole-in-one.

Second place went to Clive Dewison (17) with a superb net 60. Dewison got off to a great start with three threes in the opening four holes with a birdie on the first and pars on the next three holes. Dewison then bogeyed both of the difficult fifth and sixth holes and parred the seventh before bogeying the eighth. Like the eventual winner McCrea, Dewison also had a costly triple bogey on his card with his coming on the storm ravaged ninth hole to leave him five over gross at the turn. Dewison started the back nine with four straight bogeys before having a birdie two on the fourteenth. Two bogeys on the next two holes were followed by a par on the seventeenth and a closing birdie to leave him with a net 60 and second place overall.

The remaining places in this competition went to Neal Courtney (19) 62, Colin Gourley (25) 62, Raymond Vallelly (22) 62, Lewis McGarry (18) 64, Alistair Gilmour (16) 64 and Colin Thompson (26) 64.

John Robinson won another gross prize, obviously taking on board lessons learned at last weekends Donegal training camp to record four birdies in a two over round of 70. Robinsons birdies came on the two par fives (three and nine) and the eleventh and thirteenth holes.

Frank Gribben Memorial Qualifier

The Frank Gribben Memorial qualifier was won by another club veteran and train-spotter in Neal Courtney (19) with a superb score of 62.

Courtney got off to his usual flying start dropping four shots over the first three holes but was quickly brought back to heel by his authoritarian partner to par the next three holes.

Three bogeys followed to take Courtney to the halfway point at seven over par two ahead of his allowance. With his talented opponents pushing him Courtney opened the back nine with a tasty soup and a lucky par before stringing another five pars together.

Just as it looked as if the opposing captain had inspired another remarkable comeback Courtney parred the sixteenth and seventeenth and bogeyed the eighteenth to finish with a net 62.

A superb result and an early trophy for a player who had been hampered recently with nagging injuries. Speaking of nagging, second place in this category went to Alistair Gilmour (16) who was the Yin to Courtney’s Yang all day finishing two shots back on net 64 in a round which included a decisive two on the sixteenth.

Third place went to Lawrence Kerr (20) with a 64. Michael Scroggie took the gross prize in this section with a round of 77 which included a birdie on the fifteenth.

This week sees the annual competition for the RNLI Lifeboat Shield which is also played in the stroke format.