B&D team out but there is good news for captain

That’s because Richard Kilpatrick, the club’s Assistant Pro, was joint first at the Belvoir Park Pro-Am.

B&D

The Banbridge Belfast and District Cup team lost in round three to Clandeboye.

Banbridge had lost the away leg by 2-5 and they were quietly optimistic that they could reverse that score in the second leg at home.

That was played last Sunday afternoon.

Banbridge got off to a flying start.

Colin Wilton beat Scott Millar.

Connor Doran beat Mattie Murphy.

Ken Stevenson beat Karl Eccles.

That levelled the overall score at five games each.

But, sad to report, things went downhill for Banbridge after that.

Jonathan Ward seemed to be heading for a win as he stood dormie two up. But all credit to Ryan Currie from Clandeboye who won the last two holes to get an invaluable half for his team.

Barrie Tumilty lost five and three against Aaron Lennie.

Jim Carvill and Rory Leonard were positioned at numbers six and seven just in case a situation like this arose.

They were the most experienced players on the team and they both were superb match players.

But, as we all know, golf is unpredictable and matches do not always go to plan.

Jim Carvill detests slow play and it was certainly slow.

He could never get more than one hole up against Mark Robinson and, at the end of the day, had to settle for a half match.

Rory Leonard had to beat William Russell to tie the match and take it to a sudden-death shoot-out.

He just couldn’t do it and he lost by two and one.

Rory was bitterly disappointed but he shouldn’t be too hard on himself.

He has won a lot of crucial games for Banbridge over the years and has lost precious few. So we can all forgive him one slip-up.

Banbridge won the second leg 4-3 but lost the match overall 6-8.

BELVOIR PRO-AM

Banbridge GC’s Assistant Pro Richard Kilpatrick, alongside David Higgins (Waterville GC), shared first prize at the Belvoir Park Pro-Am sponsored by Deep River Rock.

The pair carded three under par rounds of 69 to finish two shots ahead of Ciaran Molloy (Blackwood GC), Noel Murray (Massereene GC) and Wayne O’Callaghan (Fernhill Golf & CC).

Kilpatrick made a poor start to his round with bogeys at the second and third but hit back with an eagle at the par five fifth.

He added further birdies at the eighth and ninth to reach the turn in two under par 36.

The Banbridge assistant maintained his positive momentum after the turn and further birdies at the 13th and 15th got him to four under but a dropped shot at the par three 16th saw him finish the event on three under par.

Waterville’s Higgins played some flawless golf on the front nine with birdies at the fifth, sixth and ninth getting him to three under.

He added a further birdie at the par four 10th but immediately dropped a shot at the 11th.

Five further pars were followed by his second dropped shot of the round at the 17th but he finished in style with a birdie at the tricky par four 18th.