Cunningham wins the July Medal at Mourne

Daniel Cunningham was a clear winner of the July Medal, sponsored by Graham Construction, after a fine gross 75 for a winning nett 66 left the nine handicapper two clear of his nearest challenger.

Cunningham picked up three birdies in all which helped offset the couple of double bogeys at five and 14. The birdies came at six, 11 and 12 as the winner came home in one-over 37.

His closest challenger was Callum Morgan after the big-hitting five-handicapper carded a two over 73 for a nett 68 to secure second. Morgan kept his best for last with three birdies (12, 16 and 18) over the inward nine.

That was good enough to finish one ahead of Mark Feenan and Liam Burns who returned nett 69s. Feenan secured the best gross of the day after the scratch handicapper was almost flawless. He picked up bogeys at the second and 15 but there were enough fireworks to ensure he dipped under par. His first birdie of the day came at the 10^th and another came at the 18^th, but the highlight was undoubtedly the eagle two at the 16^th.

Cunningham also won Division One while Sean Paul Murray came out on top in Division Two with his winning nett 72, one ahead of Brian Gilleece (73), while Stephen Burns, Daniel Brogan, Kevin Flynn and James Morgan formed the chasing pack with 74s.

In Division Three Daniel O’Rourke fared best with his nett 72, two ahead of Eoin White in second and Nicky Clarke (75) in third.

There was plenty of hot scoring in last Thursday’s stableford competition where Philip Maguire won with 40 points. Maguire enjoyed an eagle three at the 12^th and picked up further strokes at the third and 10th for a gross 71.

Maguire pipped Stephen Barker who was second after a sensational three-under 68 meant he signed for 39 points. Barker was in stunning form, carding six birdies in all. Remarkably his round might have been even better had he not double bogeyed the third. Kieran O’Connor and John Murphy (Jun) were third and fourth respectively on 38 points.

In the Juvenile stableford competition John Gribben was a clear winner with 43 points, five ahead of Rory McLaughlin (38) and Luke Martin (37) in third.

Special mention to John D Murray who had two remarkable hole-outs with his five-iron in his round last week. Murray holed out his second at the first for those rarest of birds in golf, an albatross two on the par five. However, he wasn’t done there and by the time he got to the ninth had another approach to the par four and the five-iron was pulled once more from the bag. In a hardly believable outcome, Murray sensationally holed out from almost 200 yards for the second time. Added to this remarkable feat of two hole-outs, it happened on the same day as the seventh anniversary of his dad’s passing.

The golfing gods were definitely looking down on Murray last week.