It was great to get the first Men’s competition of the season played, the Winter Cup. With the amount of rain over the last few days it was no surprise the course was very wet but it held up very well. Considering the weather the greens were exceptional. On the day there was a light wind and a mixture of sun and showers but the indifferent weather didn’t affect the scoring with 23 of the 70 players shooting under par. Top prize went to Graham McCabe with a net 57 (80 less 23). Not only did he win by 7 shots, Graham holed in one at the 15th so a double celebration for Graham.

Graham was out in 32, which was decent enough but nothing compared to the back nine of 25, which included the hole in 1 (net 0), 3 net eagles and 2 net birdies. Sensational shooting by Graham winning him the Winter Cup and £34.50 sweep money.

Finishing 7 shots behind the winner would normally be considered fairly average but there was nothing average about the 64’s posted by Stuart Stirling and Shaun Conway. Stuart (80 less 16) and Shaun (81 less 17) probably thought they were in with a great chance of winning and would have on most occasions but couldn’t have done much more on the day. Stuart took second place thanks to a back nine of 30 against Shaun’s 32. Stuart wins £20.70 sweep and Shaun £13.80.

Also worthy of mentions are Gordon Munro who shot 65 (81 less 16) and the 66’s from Matthew Smith (72-6), Karl Conway (70-4), Stewart Linford (82-16) and Ryan Henderson (91-25). Best gross score was Karl Conway with a 70 that included 4 birdies.

The 2’s sweep had 6 winners. Ronnie G Stuart, Tony Lang, Graham McCabe, Stewart Linford, Bill McKenna and Steven Johnston all winning £9.20.