Connor Doran excels at the ‘North’

Four players from Banbridge were eligible to play but three of them failed to make the cut.

Jonathan Ward shot 75, 82 for a total of 157. Rory Leonard shot 78, 75 for a total of 153. Colin Wilton shot 76, 71 for a total of 147.

Colin was delighted to shoot a 71 round the world-renowned Dunluce links, the same course which hosted the Irish Open a few weeks ago.

Jonathan, Rory and Colin were out of the championship. It was left to Connor Doran to fly the flag for Banbridge. And he did it brilliantly.

Connor shot 67, 66 in the two qualifying rounds and, on 133, he was joint top scorer along with Dermot McElroy (Ballymena) and Harry Diamond (Belvoir Park).

In round one of matchplay, Connor beat Mark Morrissey (Mount Wolseley) 5 and 4.

In round two, Connor beat Seamus Cullen (Slieve Russell) 3 and 2.

In round three, Connor came up against Michael Sinclair (Knock) and, despite his best efforts, he lost 3 and 2.

Michael went on to reach the final where he lost to Rory McNamara (Headford).

It was a brilliant effort by Connor and let’s hope that he can carry this form into the forthcoming Barton Shield matches.