With have a dozen on offer at County Armagh Golf Club each season, a monthly Medal is an item of silverware that every member is keen to number among their career prize collection.
Gary Lappin, then, will have derived much pleasure from his clinching of the penultimate Medal of the 2019 campaign in an event sponsored by Gerard Byrne Tyres on 17 August.
This August glory was achieved by virtue of Gary’s cracking gross 75, which comprised a Sequoias birdie, 11 pars, six bogeys and, importantly, nothing worse than that.
His back-to-back fours at the 17th and 18th were particularly commendable in the potentially jittery late stages — but, given the identity of the competition benefactors, a confident Lappin might reasonably have argued that, “Pressure’s for tyres”.
Declaring on the same nett 65 mark as the Medal champion was overall runner-up, Philip Kelly, whose latest stellar showing came in the shape of a four-under-par gross 66. Having nonchalantly dismissed the front nine in a mere 32 hits, Kelly really went into overdrive after the turn. Four birdies in the last seven holes rocketed Philip to second spot on the Saturday leaderboard and gratifying scratch-handicap esteem.
Meanwhile, a grisly double bogey at the 15th could have precipitated the unravelling of Brendan Powell’s hitherto sound outing of nine pars and five bogeys. However, Yorkie regrouped quickly and doggedly to register three finishing pars, a nett 68 and victory in category 1.
Securing second position in this section was Gareth Reilly, who equalled Powell’s nett 68 return but was pipped on a countback. Gareth’s ultimately costly double bogeys at the 12th and 16th were out of keeping with an otherwise smiley round that contained 10 pars.
Geoffrey McCarten’s Medal aspirations were similarly hampered by a pesky pair of back-nine doubles, but the calibre of his performance elsewhere meant he had enough in the bank to claim category 2 superiority and a hard-earned 15-to-14 handicap snick.
Despite haemorrhaging six shots to par in a dodgy three-hole sequence from the 10th to 12th, Martin Murphy matched McCarten’s nett 68 tally to land the runner-up gong in category 2. Martin was at his best during a terrific first half that featured a birdie at the 3rd and a just 36 shots.
“Houston, we have a problem” may have been the pained refrain of Dwayne Houston’s playing partners as he holed out for an unseemly quadruple bogey at Ballyheridan. Dwayne was admirably unperturbed by his crewmates’ pessimism though, and a spirited final six holes eventually saw him sign for a solid nett 71 that sealed the category 3 honours.
Houston’s closest challenger in the 19+ handicap bracket was Paul Hughes, whose creditable nett 72 scorecard showed a hat-trick of pars at the 3rd, 4th and, perhaps most satisfyingly, 18th.
County Armagh Golf Club’s August Medal winner, Gary Lappin, was awarded his prize by Gemma White from competition sponsors, Gerard Byrne Tyres, and Club Captain, Kenny Edgar. Pictured alongside them are category prizewinners Martin Murphy and Brendan Powell.