Yesterday's Captain's Prize, presented by Philip Maguire, was played under challenging conditions. With a South Easterly wind, unusual for our golf club, getting to our greens, let alone pins, was challenging to say the least. One member out of the 74 that teed it up and who didn't get flustered by the conditions and has had a good score brewing for a while, was Ciaran, aka Pele, Maguire. Although it was one of our senior Members, Patsy McCorry, who held the 18 hole lead with a net 63 but Pele, probably helped by having much younger legs, threw a 1 over par 3rd 9 at Patsy and pipped him at the post.

Mr and Mrs. Philip Maguire, Blacklion GC Captain with Ciaran Maguire, Captain’s Day Winner.

The course was in superb condition, in fact, it was probably in the best condition it has been for a very long time, thanks to our green keeping staff, Gaby, Francis and Paddy guided by Daniel Redmond and our course convenor Kevin Mcpartland.

Yesterday's successful event was testament to all the hard work that has gone into the course and club over the past couple of years. Many members, in fact many new members, attended the event and as Philip promised, the place was rocking.

We also should not forget the contributions of all the members, past and present, given our small club celebrates its 60th anniversary this year. It has been no mean feat to reach that milestone and it could only have been made possible with a lot of voluntary hard work during all those years.

Our reputation of being a well maintained and scenic golf course is resulting in more green fee play and every one that has paid and played has come of our course raving about the scenery and conditioning. This bodes well for the future of our club.

We should also not forget the contribution Dolores and her team makes to our golf club and thank her for not only looking after us during the (yester)day and evening ... and well into the night, but also during the days when there aren't many people playing, there's always a fire roaring, a burger cooking and a fresh pint served.

Yesterday's Captain's Prize is always the highlight of the golfing calendar in any Irish golf club and a prestigious one to win. Pele now has two and there are a few people gunning to get their name on that board next year.

We still have half the season left and still plenty to play for. Continue to support the competitions as Philip said in his speech, to keep the club going, the support of members during competitions is very important.

Captain’s Day Results

1st: Ciaran Maguire - 100

2nd: Patsy McCorry - 102

3rd: Gaby Fee - 103

Gross: Seamus Cullen

Best 18: Gareth McGovern

Front 9: Peter Cumisky

Back 9: Brendan Sweeney

Past Captain’s Prize: John Higgins

Nearest Pin: Enda Gilrane

Longest Drive: James McGrath

Visitor’s Prize: Liam McMorrow

Ladies

1st: Mary Fee

2nd: Geraldine Cremer

3rd: Rosie Dolan

To whoever is interested …

Many of you will have seen the work that has been ongoing for the past 18 months now.

An overview of what has been done and still to be done …

Clubhouse

• Solar Panels installed and working, saving us around €1,200 a year on electricity and hot water

• Clubhouse painted inside, new carpet, roof cleaned and fixed, new TV, curtains and blinds, upgraded furniture, improved internet, all lighting changed to more energy efficient and very important, if not most important … Guinness on tap.

• Caddy Shack in operation for all players to register and put in their scores, new terminal bought, new software working and members actively using the app and epurse

Around the Clubhouse

• Benches for outside eating and drinking bought

• New outside lighting installed, floodlight for putting green and new emergency access lighting

• Practice area getting there, new putting green (should be playable in a few weeks), practice bunker and practice nets.

• New concrete sand pit installed and area where sand was kept getting tidied up

• Next to concrete sand pit, area cleaned to create a buggy parking and easier access for green keepers to fill machinery with diesel

• Some trees were tidied up and made safe

Course

• New machinery arrived, fairway mower and greens mower, results are showing with more tightly mown fairways.

• Bridge almost ready on men’s 2nd tee, ladies 2nd tee to be built

• New tee box on hole 5 / 14 with wall separating the two. Teeboxes built and sodded, will be back in play in a few weeks. Area to the right of it has been filled in with excess soil and will create a flat area that can be mowed. It was hard to keep that little ‘cove’ tidy.

• Hole 9 completely redesigned, trees taken out, fairway moved more to the left. Final piece of that puzzle … 9th tee box is now lowered more than 7 feet and made smaller and tighter to the edge of the course. This will prevent golfers trying to ‘go over the corner’ … tee box sodded and should be in play in a few weeks. Area surrounding the tee will be seeded so should take a bit longer to settle.

• Lots of tidying work has been done around the course, edge of the 4th fairway cleared. This will be ongoing …

• Millennium tree (Oak) moved to the top of the hill where it can grow to its hearts content and be a landmark for future generations.

• (old) greenside bunkers top of the hill between H3,4 and 5, two bunkers filled and the bunker near the 5th fairway will be opened up and fairway mowed up around it.

• Fairway bunker top right when approaching green, the fairway will be mowed more towards the right so the landing area between the 100 mtr and bunker gets bigger and more fair.

• Several greens are being made larger in places to allow for additional pin positions.

• Fairways are being shaped slightly different to give more character to them

Still to be done in the next 12 to 18 months

• Redevelopment of the 10th Men’s tee to make it level and in general, look at all tees to see where improvements can be made.

• Looking into a sprinkler system for our greens, currently it takes a lot of voluntary manpower during hot weather to keep them ‘hydrated’ and given we are destined to see more hot spells in the coming years, something we need to cosider

• Over the winter, all the drains will be looked at and cleared. There are some addtional drains required in certain areas that are prone to become very wet in the winter.

• The ‘sumps’ in front of greens will be looked at to make them level as they are sinking and are becoming a hazard in their own right now.

• We’re looking at designating the lake as a ‘penalty area’ to make sure people know the exact rules when hitting their balls into it.

• General tidy up of the green keeping area, possible seperation between sheds and course with some greenery

• Flower bed between tee 2 and 12 as there is rock showing so it doesn’t need to get mowed which then prevents possible machinery damage.

• Triangle between Holes 3,4 and 5 - create wild flower area to encourage wildlife and bees

• Woodland bottom right of the 4th fairway will get cleared of shrubs etc to bring out the bigger trees and show the lake. There is an ancient round wall in there and we would like to bring that out a bit more prominent as a landmark.

• Woodland behind the 15th (par 3) will also be cleared so it shows the lake from the tees and creates light.

As members (and visitors) can see, a lot of work has happened and will still happen so we can achieve our ambition of becoming the best 9 hole parkland course in Ulster.

Needless to say, none of this work would have been remotely possible without the help of several volunteers, members, committee members and everybody supporting our golf club … so thank you all.

The Captains and Committee.

The 2020 edition of Blacklion GC’s Community Spirit Cup - North v South - was played on October 3rd.

The tension was palpable when the team draw was broadcasted live via our facebook page. Friday evening, both captains and two independent watchers gathered in a socially distant way to announce their teams and order of play for the morning fourball and foursome session.

After the ‘stare off’ and the toss which Philip Maguire, Captain of the South, won … he decided Darren Boyle could announce his first paring to which Philip Maguire could add his own pairing until we had all pairings matched.

The weather forecast for the day was promising and after a hearty breakfast bap, 10 teams on each side headed for their designated tee box for 18 holes of golf. The first 9 were played in 4 ball betterball format and the second 9 moved then into a Scotch Foursomes format. The scorecards were prepared with shots allocated and markers showing when teams had to move to the 2nd format to avoid all confusion :-)

After 18, pairings came into the clubhouse where they all announced their scores over soup and a sandwich. Scores were then added on the scoreboard for all to see.

It was the South that took the lead 11 to 9 after the morning session. During lunch, both captains presented their singles line up which was then shown live on our clubhouse TV screen and which created some animo when players realised who they would be facing. After a hearty bowl of soup, players went out onto the course under beautiful blue skies to play their single match. Nothing was decided with so few points in it.

Following the 9 holes singles, players once again returned to the clubhouse for a warm meal during which the scores were announced. Again, shown on the clubhouse TV, every match announced their score and the scoreboard got updated. As we went through the scores, the South kept their narrow advantage but the carefully crafted and well though out line up by the Northern captain with some of the leading players at the tail end of proceedings proved to be too much for the South to handle. Admittedly, he also had another ace up his sleeve when Gareth McGovern was able to add himself to the line up at the last minute. The last couple of matches turned the table with the North taking 4.5 of the last 6 points. Final score, 20.5 to the North versus 10.5 to the South. After the South took the 1st edition in 2018, all eyes are now on the 2021 edition with the score 1 all.

The second edition of the Community Spirit Cup was again a roaring success with 12 new members participating giving them a good insight in our club life and hopefully encourage them to put their name down for competitions. The event was open to both long time as new members, both men and ladies and we can look back on a great event with a bit of ‘banter’ and lots of ‘craic’.

Peter Robinson, our President, took inspiration from the USGA and the US Open set up at Winged Foot and moved the pins into some challenging positions. We had Rich Beem have a look at them and he only had one conclusion, they were ‘smelly’ …

The combination of the challenging pins, tees moved back, the course being soft underground and an unusual wind direction, Blacklion GC played its full length and only 1 player, following US Open pattern, broke par.

The only one to break the magic number was Barry ‘Bryce’ McGourty with a solid 38 points and he can join an illustrious group of members who have a President’s Prize under their belt.

One of the highlights in the Blacklion GC competition calendar is the MacNean House & Restaurant by Neven Maguire Open.

Our long standing partner Neven, family and staff have always been very supportive of our club and even following the CV19 pandemic and the challenges this posed for his business, he remained loyal to his word by continuing his sponsorship of the tournament that carries his name.

Played over an extended (bank holiday) weekend and with lots of rain preceding the event itself, the course played its full length and the rough was challenging. Straight hitters were favoured to top the leaderboard.

Aidan Wynne topped the field with an impressive 44 points followed by Gareth McGovern who has seen some success the last couple of weeks. Kieran McGrath is getting used to his SIM MAX driver he picked up during our fund raising draw #8 and is showing some form of late.

This year’s new competition Captains Day saw a full field of 80 players, men, women and juniors compete.

James McGrath topped the lot with a solid 44 points while Josephine Boyle scored a solid 36 points to win the ladies prize. young Michael Burns won the Junior section with 37 points and has reached a solid 12 handicap in the process.

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Joe Keany (K) played the Blacklion course with a score of 42 points closely followed by young Michael Burns with 41 and Declan McGrath with 40. Shane McCabe won the visitors prize with 39 points.

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Our first Club Champions are last year's Captain Noel Melanaphy in the Men's Category. Kathleen Leonard in the Ladies’ section and Patrick Magee in the Junior section. Congratulations to all.

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Winner Draw 9:

Macnean House & Restaurant Dinner B&B for 2 - TBC

Winner Draw 8:

Taylor Made SIM Max driver - Kieran McGrath

Winner Draw 7:

Macnean House & Restaurant Dinner B&B for 2 - Philip Maguire

Winner Draw 6:

Powakaddy and Bag - Jim Leonard

Winner Draw 5:

iPad 10.2 Retina Wi-Fi - Aidan Melanaphy

Winner Draw 4:

2 night stay B&B, Dinner and Spa at the Killyhevlin Hotel in Enniskillen - Michael Hargadon

Winner Draw 3:

Macnean House & Restaurant Dinner B&B for 2 - Seamus Falconer

Winner Draw 2:

Powakaddy and Bag - Joseph Barry

Winner Draw 1:

Powakaddy and Bag - Fred Potter

Terms and Conditions for our COVID19 Club Support Fund Draws

• Tickets are non refundable

• A single ticket is €10, you can buy multiple tickets

• Tickets limited to 100 per draw

• Upon payment online, you will be issued an order number

• Should you buy multiple tickets, we will add your name that number of times in the draw.

• We use random.org to do our draws and will do them via Facebook Live videos.

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Considering current Government, medical and GUI advice, Blacklion Golf Club will remain open for the foreseeable future and club competitions will commence from St Patricks Day, weather permitting.

The Spring League finals will commence at 11.00am on Sunday and will be followed by the Captain’s Drive In at 3.00pm. Prizes will be presented at a later date.

Members are asked to diligently wash their hands on entry to the Clubhouse on all occasions, before and after playing golf, in order to minimise the possibility of transmitting this virus.

Wash basins will be washed and sanitised regularly and soap and paper towels made available. Please dispose of towels in receptacles provided.

Darren Boyle

Blacklion Council

12/03/20