Few members are more familiar with the surroundings of the County Armagh Golf Club winners' enclosure than Paul Doyle, and the big man added another victory to his collection on 10 June.
In the Sunday Stroke tournament, Paul was firing on all cylinders during a flawless back nine of eight pars and one birdie that backed up his highly respectable 36-shot outward journey. The consequential gross 71 and nett 65 clipped Doyle's handicap back to five and edged out runner-up Paul Donnelly on a break of tie.
Donnelly is enjoying a successful season of his own, and this latest prize-winning display comes hot on the heels of his triumph in last month's Bumblebee Cup. Donnelly has clearly been entirely comfortable with the lower handicap that that red-letter day granted him, and he reduced it still further here with a terrific outing that included six pars.
The 14th Hole at County Armagh: par 4, index 9, Sequoias.
Having bagged fourth position in the Lonsdale Cup eight days previously, Tom Fox was competing at the upper echelons of the leaderboard once again this time out. A tremendous one-over-par front nine culminated in back-to-back birdies and sent Fox to a nett 66 that, although marred by a seven at the 15th, was sufficient to see off all comers in category 1. The best of his challengers was Darren Wilson, who haemorrhaged five shots at the 7th and 8th but was simply superb elsewhere in recording 11 pars, a birdie and, ultimately, a nett 67.
Just like Wilson, Oliver Connell registered a nett 67 and endured the minor calamity of an eight on Oul Coach Road. However, Connell, too, performed admirably at the remainder of the holes, and his back nine of 36 hits saw him to the top of the category 2 pecking order. Trailing Oliver by one was Aidan McParland, who collected a second category award in the space of a fortnight by virtue of a solid nett 68 that incorporated seven pars.
Meanwhile, Gerard Byrne and Liam O'Hagan were neck and neck at the summit of the category 3 standings, both on nett 67, until a break of tie decided the result in favour of the former. Byrne landed a par on each nine of his very steady offering, while the highlight of O'Hagan's day was a one-under-par five-hole stretch from Shambles to Beresford.
On Wednesday 13 June, Eamon Connolly's marvellous 40-point scorecard was the best returned in the Senior Open Stableford, and Roger Duggan grabbed a slice of glory in prevailing among the under-50s with a 39-point showing that was boosted by four consecutive back-nine pars.