Thomas Tames The Toughies To Take Tenth FerEx Qualifier
Best of the day was nett 66 from Thomas Quinn, belying his 19 shots by playing stroke indexes 1-4 in 5 under par nett, birdies net eagles at 6 and 15. This beats Thomas's best score at Fereneze by 4 shots, an 89 in August last year and it's his lowest score differential (Gross Score v Course Rating) ever.
That was good enough for a 2 shot victory over a trio of players on 3 under nett. Davey Davidson, Crawford "The Big Easy" Mackay and Craig Coleman.
Scratch Medal
A final opportunity for those involved in the first round of the club championship to "tune" their game. 15th seed Josh Beatt warmed up nicely with a very solid 70, I've mentioned before how many birdies Josh can rack up but today was much more about the pars, having dropped back from 2 under to level he managed a birdie 3 at the last to pip Ian McMillan, Davie Miller and Craig Coleman by 1 shot. That triumvirate all shooting level par.
First Class Medal
Easy swinging but big hitting Crawford Mackay took the 1st Class Medal with nett 68 (gross 72). Birdies at 5 and 9 offset by bogies at 3, 15 and 18. Not only is it a joy to watch The Craw hit the ball with his long lazy Ernie Els action he's also contributed much off the course when it comes to his building skills. Craig Coleman warmed up for his family duel with dad Jim with a nett 68 (gross 71) but lost out courtesy of a poorer inward half than Crawford. Craig, like Josh and Davie Miller got himself to 2 under at one point but slipped back to level. Still that's 2 consecutive 71s. Andy Moyes sneaked the 3rd place sweep money thanks to his better inward half v Anthony Furay and the aforementioned Josh Beatt. Andy finished with 6 4s.
Second Class Medal
Shooting his competitive personal best at Fereneze, Davey Davidson took the 2nd Class Medal by 1 shot from Thomas McFlynn with a nett 68. After a couple of poor holes around the turn Davey kickstarted his back 9 with a birdie net eagle at 10 and registered no worse than bogey at any hole in the way in for a solid 68. Thomas also had an excellent back 9 of 36 gross, his great run starting at 12 where he made 3 nett 2 completing the last 7 holes with that birdie and 6 consecutive pars. Bernard McDonald took 3rd. I fairly often mention the value of sticking at it after a bad start....Bernie had 2 triples and a double bogey in his first 5 holes, easy to get dispirited but he had no worse than bogey on any of the remaining 13 holes and made 2 at 14.
Third Class Medal
Best of the day Thomas Quinn took 3rd Class. Daniel O'Hagan was outright 2nd 3 shots back on nett 69. Daniel had no worse than nett bogey at 4 holes and managed an excellent 4 nett 2 at 15 which helped him edge out Russell Guthrie in 3rd place. Russell was the only other player in 3rd Class who managed an under par round. Like many others the back 9 was better than the front and also like Thomas in 2nd class Russell had birdie net eagle at 12 and finished strongly to secure a top 3 spot.
Analysis
6 of the 9 hardest holes were on the front 9 today so probably no real surprise that it played 9.57 over it's par of 36 with the back 9 playing almost 2 shots easier v it's par at 7.74.
- The 12th had the most birdies (12)
- There were no birdies at 7.
- 15 had the most bogies (65)
- 13 had the most double bogies (37)
- The 3rd had the most others (39)
- The 18th had the most pars (71)
FerEx
The order of merit is starting to have a fairly settled look about it in the top 10 although there's still plenty of scope to break into that and indeed the top 30 but some top 10 finishes will be required for those languishing mid table. Simon Leonard still leads from Clark Hill and Jim Coleman. Next to nothing between 2nd and 3rd, same between Craig Shaw and Michael Hart in 4th and 5th.
Notable Movers this Week:
- Craig Coleman 35th to 20th
- Tony McGorrian 34th to 22nd
- Davey Davidson 105th to 46th
We now take a break on the FerEx with the next event being Medal No.9 on Saturday 16th August.