Purton wins House Committee Cup and leads home Gold Medal qualifiers
Eoin Purton won the House Committee Cup and led qualifying for the Gold Medal after shooting a superb round of 43pts to win by one shot from Mark Cumiskey.
Purton, playing off 10, produced an almost faultless round that included three birdies, nine pars and six bogeys as he went out in 20pts and came home in 23pts.
He started by picking up two points on each of the opening three holes before producing a six point haul over the next two holes as he parred the index one fourth and birdied the par three fifth.
Two pars at the back to back par-fives yielded another five points and back to back bogeys at the eight and ninth delivered three more points for his front nine total of 20pts.
Two-point returns at each of the first five holes on the back nine kept his round going steadily along and he found himself on 30pts with four holes to go.
The next four holes were the ones that delivered the overall honours for Puton as he birdied the long index 6 par four 15th for four points and then had a three point par at the even longer par four 16th. A two-point par at the par three 17th was then followed by a birdie three at the last as he came home in 23pts.
Mark Cumiskey, off nine, also produced a superb round on his way to 42pts. He had five birdies, five pars and eight bogeys as he went out in 22pts and came home in 20pts.
Aaron Grant won the Gross Prize with 34pts while the Divisional winners were Austin Shaw (10), Brendan Duffy (13) and John McLaughlin (24).
The competition served as a qualifier for the Gold Medal with the cut failing at 33pts as the 64 players on or above that mark making it through to the matchplay rounds. The draw for the first round is below ad the first round must be played by July 13.
Saturday, June 12 and Sunday, June 13 – House Committee Cup/Gold Medal Qualifier – Overall: Eoin Purton (10) 43pts, Mark Cumiskey (9) 42pts. Gross: Aaron Grant (+3) 34pts. Division 1 (Up to 9.6): Austin Shaw (10) 39pts, John Neary (10) 38pts. Division 2 (9.7 to 15.1) Brendan Duffy (13) 40pts, Kenneth Lynch (13) 38pts. Division 3 (15.2 +): John McLaughlin (24) 41pts, Dessie Corbett (26) 41pts.
Gold Medal First Round Draw – Eoin Purton v Paul Morgan, Eamonn Arthur v John McKeever, James Rowland v Michael Greene, David Cairns v John Paul Casey, PJ Dooley v Edmund Sheridan, Martin McCaughey v Zak Alderdice, Michael Keating v David McDonnell, John Neary v George Rogers, Gerry Campbell v Patrick Donaghy, Fergal Sexton v Robert Williamson, Dennis Cunningham v Vincent Jackson, Jim Dwyer v Oisin Murray, John MacGuinness v Paul Coburn, Ciaran Cooney v Liam McGailey, Jim Caraher v Harry O’Hanrahan, Dessie Corbett v Garrett Duffy, John McLaughlin v Hugh Reilly, Brendan Tinnelly v Ronan Farrelly, Aidan Thornton v Maurice Soraghan, Frank Byrne v Mark Coan, Anthony Tuite v v Charles Monahan, Gerard Carroll v Pascal Keenan, Derek Cahill v Patrick McGuinness, Brendan Duffy v Peter McCaughey, Austin Shaw v Thomas Clarke, Kenneth Lynch v Patrick Reilly, Kieran Arthurs v Sean Hession, Ciaran Traynor v Nigel Giff, Eamon Hoey v Aaron Grant, Martin McDonnell v Odhran MacShane, Kevin Callan v David Smyth, Mark Cumiskey v Aaron Waite. Matches to be played by July 13.