With Keady's Hugh McElvanna Drapery and Footwear once again kindly lending its backing to a summer stroke competition at County Armagh Golf Club, Conal Hamill was triumphant in the 2019 iteration after a made-to-measure nett 63.
Hamill's sensational four-over-par outing on 23 June was worthy of Savile Row itself and ensured a four-shot margin of victory that, by comparison, left the remainder of the 140-man field floundering in ill-fitting rags.
Conal Hamill's outstanding nett 63 secured victory in a club County Armagh Golf Club stroke competition last month. He was presented with his prize by event sponsor, Hugh McElvanna from McElvanna Drapery and Footwear, Keady. Also pictured are Club Captain, Kenny Edgar, and other prizewinners (L-R): Niall McGeown, Martin Carson, Stewart Stevenson, Brendan Lynch and John McAleavey.
The Moy Square Wheeler opened with a bogey five before piecing together a marvellous sequence of nine consecutive pars. Then, a Shambles four was immediately cancelled out by a birdie on the 12th, before an equal split of pars and bogeys across the last six holes delivered Conal safely back to the clubhouse as champion.
The avoidance of a double bogey throughout and the resultant 11-to-10 reduction will have been of particular satisfaction to Hamill, who will be on hand to pass on his tips to the world's best players while working as an Open marshal at Portrush this week.
Next to Conal in the overall standings was tournament runner-up, John McAleavey, who was another of seven Cuchulainn Hurling Club members to take his place on the day's prizewinners' podium. McAleavey's impressive nett 67 scorecard showed a birdie at the Quarry and eight other pars, including a nerveless 4, 4 finish.
Adam Cromwell and Jerome Leer are two players whose golfing talent is as lofty as their physical height, and this pair ended head and shoulders above the rest in the category 1 pecking order. Adam put his injury woes behind him to post an exquisite one-under-par 69 that earned top spot, while Jerome registered birdies at the 7th and 12th amid his construction of a useful gross 73.
Elsewhere, Niall McGeown's utterly mad-capped display contained the setbacks of a nine at the 8th and an eight at the 10th, but also the brilliance of four birdies — three of which came in the form of lucrative 2s. When Niall eventually disembarked his Sunday roller-coaster, he found that his nett 67 had clinched the honours in category 2. In second position here was Martin Carson, whose charge up the McElvanna leaderboard was powered by a birdie at the 14th and a hat-trick of pars.
Finally, in category 3, Brendan Lynch and Turlough Brady both returned fine nett 69 totals. Brendan notched four pars and took the divisional plaudits on a break of tie, while Turlough's admirable handicap-beating effort proved that he was feeling no ill-effects from the previous night's Lady Captain's Day celebrations.