Lisburn lead the qualifiers in the Junior Foursomes

Three members of Lisburns Junior Foursomes team: Aaron Marshall, Kyle Patton and Josh Robinson.

As holders of the Irish Junior Foursomes title, Lisburn hosted the Ulster qualifying round last Saturday.

The heavy rain in the morning caused the course to be closed at 12.00 noon with the club competition cancelled. At 1.00 pm the rain stopped and the captain Ken Haslem led a team of volunteers to clear water from the greens. Their effort was rewarded and by 1.30 pm the course was playable although the “lift, clean and place the ball rule” had to be applied.

The competition is played on handicap with the combined scores of the two foursomes pairs counting. Cushendall set the early pace with a net score of 147. They retained the lead until Lisburn posted 142.5

Kyle Patton (2) and Josh Hamilton (8) started with a double bogey seven but back to back birdies at 5 and 6 helped them to go out in 38. After three successive bogeys starting at 13 they finished with three pars for a back nine of 39 and a net 72.

Aaron Marshall (3) and Josh Robinson (4) started with two birdies and reached the turn in 36. They came home in 38 for a round of 74 for a net score of 70.5.

Tandragee finished on 148. Belvoir Park finished in almost complete darkness on 146 to complete the top four qualifiers. Lisburn now play Tandragee while Belvoir Park play Cushendall at Cairndhu on 1st August.

Forty two teams entered the competition but ten failed to appear putting a big strain on the GUI officials. Luckily the weather improved as the day proceeded and the competition was completed.

Wednesday Stableford: 1st Christophe McKnight 40pts, 2nd Alan Taylor 40pts, 3rd Kyle Patton 39pts.

The Sam Rutherford team played host to Rossmore in the first leg of the quarter final.

After a lot of work on the greens by Dessie Kerr and numerous volunteers, the match got started 15 minutes later than scheduled.

The Lisburn pairings of Gary Campbell & Brian Houston won 2 holes up, Martin Lilley & Rodney Osbourne performed excellently to win their match by 7 holes. Michael Robinson & Colin Hill won by 1 hole and Gary Hewitt & Ben Kirkwood were unfortunate to lose by 3 holes.

Overall the team managed to get a 7 hole lead over their opposition going into next week’s return leg at Rossmore.

David McDowell’s Rossmore Cup team travelled to Rossmore to play the first leg of the quarter finals.

The team performed well under very difficult conditions.

The lead pair of Mervyn Mawhinney & Ivor Walker won 1 up. Randal Kernoghan & John Kelso last 2 & 1.

Colin Jeffers & Rab Campbell lost 6 & 5 and Gary Brett & Gavin Hawkins lost 2 & 1.