The historic Hirsch Cup is the Swiss Ladies Open Championship trophy, which was won by County Armagh's most celebrated lady golfer, Maisie Hirsch, before she donated it to the club in 1938. Fast forward to the present day, specifically Saturday 29 April 2017, and each competitor in a 163-strong field stepped onto the first tee aiming to follow in Maisie's illustrious footsteps and take home the Hirsch Cup for himself.
This stroke competition, sponsored by Cormac Knott's Netstretch Ltd, witnessed relatively conservative scoring as the advantages afforded by immaculate greens and increased run on bone-dry fairways were more than nullified by blustery conditions, devilish pin positions and a quickness of the aforementioned greens that may have caught some by surprise.
One player who certainly wasn't daunted by any of these potential pitfalls was Darren Wilson, whose hard-earned nett 67 made him a worthy recipient of the Hirsch silverware and reduced his handicap by a shot.
Darren's tremendous performance peaked at the 7th, where a birdie took him back to just one over par. An uncertain spell would immediately follow, however, and Wilson reached the 13th tee on seven over and with work to do to avoid squandering the benefits of his early endeavours.
The then 13-handicapper steadied his ship admirably from that point, with four gutsy pars in the closing six holes ultimately deciding the result in his favour.
Hirsch Cup winner Darren Wilson receives the trophy from Cormac Knott of Netstretch Web Design, who sponsored the competition. Also pictured (L-R) are runner-up Mark Shannon, Club Captain Richard Stewart and Philip Kelly, best gross.
Trailing Darren by a single shot was Mark Shannon, who filled second position overall with a fine nett 68. Mark's scrappy start of five over par for as many holes was as torturous as the following analogy is tortuous and seemed to represent an impenetrable dam to his hoped-for surge to a prizewinning round. However, the floodgates burst open at that point and the pars and birdies began to flow for Shannon with all the forceful torrent of Ireland's longest river.
Mark would conclude affairs on the same five-over-par tally, with that gross 75 leading to a handicap snip from seven to six as he commences the 2017 season in impressive fashion.
Shannon's inspired level-par homeward nine was the determining factor in his finishing ahead of John McKinney and Sean Dougan Snr, both of whom also registered nett 68s but had to content themselves with category victories.
Dougan took the category 1 honours with a gross 79 that owed much to a terrific 35-shot front nine culminating in a birdie 2 at the difficult 9th. Sean dropped seven shots in the next six holes but showed much character in an accomplished 4, 4, 5 closing sequence that sealed his category win.
Runner-up here was Keady's finest, Barry Scully, who racked up nine pars on his way to a nett 69 that would have been even better but for punishing back-to-back double bogeys at the 10th and 11th.
In common with Scully, McKinney parred half the holes and endured a minor trauma at the 10th. John recovered commendably from that treble bogey at the long and uphill par 5, eventually signing for a gross 84 that means he'll be a 15-handicapper next time out.
Second to John was Daryl Lawson, whose pleasing nett 69 included a hat-trick of pars at the 13th, 14th and 15th but was diminished by four sixes, most notably at the par-3 9th.
In category 3, it was third time lucky for Benny Simpson, who followed up two recent second-place performances by taking top spot this time. Simpson's no-nonsense nett 69 was matched by Rodney Villiers, who lost out on a break of tie. Rodney opened each nine with a seven but, more happily, enjoyed the same parring streak as Lawson between Rokeby Green and Beresford.
Philip Kelly's 72 was the best gross score of the Saturday proceedings. Notwithstanding a relatively poor display on the home strait having been a majestic two under par after 12 holes, County Armagh's lowest handicapper looks certain to be a prolific gross prize winner in coming months.