JFord Nett Round 2 25th August 2019

JFord Club Championship - the Nett report 

JFord - the Nett report 

The battle for the unheralded Nett best on Club Championship weekend ultimately came down to the ability of the three halfway leaders to maintain their form ... 

Gary Shaughnessy (-7) started the day with a four shot lead after his superb 92/28/64 ... 

His main challengers were the in-form newly signed up duo of Brian Nichols and Luke Dunlop both 4 shots back on -3 . 

The early holes saw Shaughnessy drop a couple of shots to handicap after the first three holes and play well in patches for the rest of the front 9 which saw him at -6 with one shot dropped to handicap with his highlight a net eagle 4 on hole 7 . 

Nichols had maintained his form in the opening 9 holes playing his opening 7 steadily and back to back pars on 8 and 9 taking him to -5 and thus just one short of the overnight leader . 

Dunlop has been mentioned in dispatches by no less a player than our newly crowned Club Champion for his big-hitting , control AND with an appetite to hone his game on the driving range . Today he started poorly and immediately lost a shot to handicap with a double bogey 6 on the tricky opening hole . 

He was to make his move from the 4th gaining 4 shots to handicap in 6 holes to finish his back 9 as joint leader and with ominous momentum .

The opening three holes of the back 9 saw all three contenders remain on their scores and holes 12-15 saw the picture begin to change ... all 3 players gained a shot by parring the  ever challenging 13th but where Nichols and Dunlop both played to handicap on the long 14th Shaughnessy dropped two shots with a quad bogey 8 ... with all playing to handicap on 15 it was now Dunlop ahead at -7 with Nichols at -6 and Shaughnessy further back at -5 but all three still very much in contention .

Three holes to go and more changes at the benign 16th. as Nichols (3) took closer order to tie the lead with a par where Dunlop (4) played to handicap and Shaughnessy (5) dropped back further to fall 3 shots behind  .

Momentum was clearly with Nichols but Dunlop responded immediately and put himself  into pole position for the first time with a crucial par on 17 to get to 8 under with Nichols (5) on 7 under whilst first round leader Shaughnessy had the misfortune to record a 10 and drop back to level par , rough justice for a marvellous weekend .

And so the final hole saw Luke Dunlop stand on the final tee with a one shot lead ... sadly he was to succumb to a triple bogey 7 which meant two shots dropped and a finishing score of 6 under for 36 holes , a fantastic effort but would it be enough ?

Shaughnessy sadly dropped three further shots to handicap with a quad bogey 8 to finish 2 over for his campaign in 6th place but he too can be very proud of his performance .

Nichols played the final hole in regulation 5 strokes to finish on 7 under and take the Nett bragging rights by a stroke to continue his superb start since taking up membership . 

Other net performances of note came from two of the ‘Big Three’ Club Championship contenders with Danny Miller finishing on 3 under after a superb 74/7/67 and the Club Champion Glen Rothwell himself being the only other player to beat net par with  a glorious 72/4/68 giving him a 1 under finishing position. A truly fantastic effort by this duo out-performing all but two of the membership despite their low handicaps. 

Newcomer Ben Calvin followed up his 91/18/73 with 87/18/69 which was the only sub par round of the day to take fifth spot playing in his first ever Alty tournament! 

The course again ultimately had the last laugh with just 4 sub-par finishers  and it again showed how tricky it can be when played at its maximum length .