Caribbean lead cut in Winter League

The Caribbean became the first team to retain top spot in the lowcostholidays.ie Men’s Winter League but their lead has been cut to two points after Week Four of this popular competition.

Caribbean shot 159pts, their second best score of the tournament, but Thailand, who led after Week 2, shot 165pts with Sean Quigley again leading the way, contributing 35pts to bring his total over the first four weeks to 129pts, making him the best individual performer among the 13 teams.

Portugal, who trailed by 25pts heading into Week 4, shot 174pts to jump from fourth to third and close the gap on the leaders to eight points. More importantly, they are now just six points off second and very much in contention for a place in the matchplay final.

The pairings for the February 15 shoot-out will be decided next week and the likes of Greece on 617pts, Canada on 615pts and Egypt on 612pts will also go into the final round feeling they have a chance of making the final.

Canada set a newest highest score for the tournament with their five counting players shooting an incredible 182pts, which was seven more than the previous best recorded by Caribbean in Week 2. Egypt and Australia with 176pts also bettered the previous best.

Sunday’s individual competition was won by 16-handicapper Brian Ward who beat another man off 16, John McCann, by one point after shooting a phenomenal 40pts over 14 holes. Birdies at the seventh and tenth, two of the par-fives on the course, yielded four points at each and Ward also picked up three points from pars at the second, third, fourth, eighth, ninth, 11^th, 12^th and 13^th.

McCann’s round was equally impressive as he recorded nine three pointers but he only managed one four-pointer birdie, at the 10^th, to miss out on the top prize by the narrowest of margins.

Third place went to Padraig McDonnell who shot 38pts off 20 and made the podium on countback.

Sunday, February 1, 2015

Singles Stableford 14 hole competition

1: Brian Ward (16), 40pts.

2: John McCann (16) 39pts.

3: Padraig McDonnell (20) 38/20pts.

lowcostholidays.ie Men’s Winter League

(Standings after Week 4)