Portland Cup @ North Manchester GC, April 2024

Portland Cup @ North Manchester GC, 26th April 2024

Finally the sun shone, the rain stopped and courses were open again for golf. Following the postponement of the March event it was great to get the initial golf day of 2024 up and away. North Manchester was the venue and 32 golfers, loose description, eagerly waited to get out there.

Following the obligatory Bacon butty the troops were led off by soon to be new captain Chris Murphy, present captain and recently retired John Coburn and Jim Skelly pushed up the batting order. The 1^st at North is quite a daunting first hole with a sizeable pond in front of the tee, no names no pack drill but one of the aforementioned trio managed to send his ball for a wash. 

There were no real items of note during the course of the day with nobody providing any comedy moments or any dramas.

It was good to see a number of new faces along with some old stalwarts, lets hope that these numbers continue to swell over the coming year. I am sure the next event, the Presidents Cup to be held at Royal Blackley, will be well attended if only to get a free pint off President Mel Garner.

There are only 3 par 3’s at North but each of them provides a challenge. Jim Cleary in the 2^nd group out set the standard on the 9^th, which proved to be impossible to beat. The 11^th was won by new member Mike Yates and 11^th by his playing partner Terry Tobin ( its funny how we usually manage to get at least one nearest the pin winner in the final group – just saying ) 

The longest drive was achieved by Paul Delargy. 

The final placings were very close with just 4 points separating the top 5. It required a card playoff to separate 4^th and 5^thand a further one to find the winner.  Joe Boyd scoring one more point on the back nine than Geoff Haynes.

Due to the postponement at Worsley the AGM was held at North Manchester. The minutes for the AGM have been distributed to the Portland Golf Society members

Winner Joe Boyd with new Captain Chris Murphy