J Ford contenders
After hole ... | 1 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 12 | 15 | 17 | 18 |
Mark Snape | E | -1 | +1 | +2 | +2 | +3 | +3 | +5 |
David Royle | +1 | +5 | +4 | +5 | +5 | +6 | +6 | +7 |
Danny Miller | E | +1 | +2 | +4 | +6 | +6 | +8 | +8 |
Stewart Royle | +1 | +2 | +1 | E | +1 | +5 | +7 | +8 |
Joe Hadfield | E | +2 | +2 | +2 | +6 | +7 | +9 | +10 |
Norman Crowther | +1 | +3 | +5 | +5 | +7 | +10 | +10 | +10 |
Keith Ralston | E | +3 | +3 | +6 | +8 | +10 | +10 | +11 |
Glen Rothwell | +2 | +4 | +4 | +5 | +7 | +10 | +13 | +13 |
Mark Snape (+2/+3/+5) has put himself in with a great chance of landing his first Club Championship with a superb display in the cloudy conditions this morning . He started well , standing on the 4th tee at -1 after opening with two pars and then a birdie 2 on 3 ... sadly he went on a mini-slump , dropping shots at 3 of the next 4 holes before he regrouped with pars on 8 and 9 leaving him +2 at the turn , just 2 shots off the lead . Mark further consolidated his position with 3 further pars before sloppy play cost him a double bogey on 13 to halt his momentum. Snape reacted magnificently and birdied 14 then parred in to stand on the final tee at just +3 and threatening to run away with the competition. Sadly he succumbed to a double bogey on the final hole and a 2 shot lead . Will he be able to close out his finest victory ? We will see ...
David Royle (+5/+2/+7) has finished today in second place and in strong contention to be Club Champion tomorrow ... inexplicably David had a horrid start with doubles on 1 and 3 and a triple bogey on 2 which left him at +5 after just 3 holes ... he regrouped magnificently with birdies on 4 and 6 which compensated for further losses on 5 and 9 thus leaving him at +5 at the turn 5 shots off the lead . His back 9 was ‘best in show’ with his third birdie of his round on 10 the highlight ... with him restricting bogeys to just 3 coming home it meant that he finished on +7 and just 2 shots off the lead .
Danny Miller (+4/+4/+8) has long coveted the ultimate Alty GC prize and today he has produced a solid display . His only major highlight was a birdie 2 on 13 but he was uncharacteristically sloppy on some of the easier holes with bogeys on 3,8,10 and 16 , . Three shots back , Danny will need to produce his best golf tomorrow to prevail but undoubtedly has the class to do it .
Stewart Royle (E/+8/+8) started sloppily with bogeys on the opening couple of holes before regrouping superbly to play the next 7 holes at -2 with birdies at 6 and 8 to get to the turn at even and in a 2 shot lead . Former champion Royle maintained momentum parring 10 and 11 but faltered badly at Amen Corner bogeying 12 and 13 and dropping three shots on 14 . His par at 15 sadly heralded consecutive bogeys on the final three holes leaving him at +8 but still only 3 shots off the lead .
Defending Champion Watch ...
Glen Rothwell (40/44/84) has had a horror first day in his quest for a 6th Club Championship ... the great man suffered his worst completed medal round for over a year in the cloudy conditions this morning . The champion , going out early as usual , got off to a poor start with a double on the tricky opening hole then compounded it with back to back bogeys to go +4 after just 3 holes . He regrouped well to par 5 of the next 6 holes , succumbing a shot only on the deceptively long 8th and stood 3 shots off the pace at the turn . Rothwell again lost ground by bogeys on 10 and 12 and although he got back on track by parring 13 and 14 he inexplicably leaked six shots ,3-2-1 on 15/16/17 and ended his round on +13 , a massive 8 shots behind .It will take a truly superb round tomorrow to have any chance of retaining his title .
overall a day where the course showed its dominance despite the relatively calm conditions .
NB Your scribe has started a website which allows members or anyone to view his reports . It is perhaps apt to explain that his efforts in producing the reports for the members are supported solely by Trafford Leisure and Mr. Jason Denton in particular .
The website can be accessed at ...
https://www.golfboardcompetitionarchives.com/
any members who do NOT wish their names or images to be shown on the website need only contact Paul Hackett through the IG messaging service or at mrpaulhackett@sky.com and your name will be changed to anonymise you from the reports . If no contact is made the assumption will be that you are happy to be included.