18 Sept 2025
Congratulations Ryan
The Tullymore Cup was contested at Ballymena Golf Club on a wet and windy day.
Ryan Crawford (14) emerged as the winner with a great score of 5up in a format where the player gains a point for beating his net par and loses one for not achieving a net par.
Crawford started with a five at the first and then scored points at the next two with two gross pars.
A double bogey at the fourth lost him a point but he got it back immediately with another par on the fifth.
Crawford lost his last point of the front nine on the sixth before tying the seventh and scoring at both the eighth and the ninth with a par and a birdie respectively.
This left him 3up at the halfway point.
The back nine started well with a par on the tenth giving him another point before he tied the eleventh and lost the twelfth. A birdie on the thirteen was followed by two two pars to add three points and three bogeys to finish his round which cost him one point as he didn’t have a shot down the final hole.
Michael Scroggie (9) took second place finishing 4up. Scroggie scored at the first hole with an opening par and then tied the next five holes before losing his point at the short par three seventh and going 1down at the next.
A birdie on the par five ninth left him level after nine but he would make his score on the back nine although it started with a loss on the tenth and a tie on the eleventh.
Scroggie then won points at five of the last seven holes and tied the sixteenth and the eighteenth with solid pars and no shot allowance to leave him clear in second place.
Neal Courtney (18) finished third on 3up.
Courtney, sporting a trendy new outfit, benefited from a favourable partner draw at the start of his round and bounced back from a losing club final on the previous day where he claimed to have two twos.
Courtney beat par on six holes but unfortunately lost on three including the eighteenth which gave his under-performing opponents a reprieve in the bye.
The remaining places went to Paul Curry (11) 2up,
John Caulfield (21) 2up,
Alec Lowry (23) 2up,
Jay Smyth (12) 2up and
Colm Cunningham (15) 2up.
There were only fifteen twos recorded by the one hundred and forty-one strong field with Adam Barr claiming two which came on the fourth and seventh holes.
John Robinson won the gross prize with a one under par round of 67 which included birdies on the third, fifth, thirteenth and fifteenth holes.
Next week sees the Jimmy Gribben Memorial event hosted at the club and it is played in the stableford format.