Winner of the Charlie Sifford Memorial Trophy (left)
2017 season as come and gone, our final golf event was held at the McDonald Portal complex in Cheshire. The event was played over the two courses, the Championship and the Premiere. The conditions on the Championship didn’t live up to the title mainly due to the soft conditions throughout the course, which made it difficult to find balls in the rough and putting was a real lottery with a soft surface attracting every footprint and also with treated greens. The second day on the Premiere course was much better, the greens where excellent and the overall layout was well received, with everyone suggesting we should have played it twice. Anyway the weekend lived up to prior hype with the main Order of Merit protagonists out in the final group.

It was Dave Brown, Junior Harris, Ian Higgins and Roan McLeod at the back of the field competing for top honours. The first day’s proceedings on the Championship started very well for Roan, who was hoping to put in a late charge and sneak up on the other three who were separated by the smallest margin on the order of merit. Roan was level par after 11 holes with birdie putts dropping in from all over the greens, his charge didn’t last and he fell away from the title chase but secured the most birdies in the season. Ian Higgins the silent assassin out on the course, it doesn’t look like he’s scoring well due to his laid back manner but he’s in or around the top spot most of the time and if not he’ll usually pull out the big dog and claim the long drive prize. On this occasion his focus was on the big prize of the Order Merit winner. The other two in the final group Dave Brown and Junior Harris both failed to capitalise on the first day’s proceedings, the difficult conditions proved to be their stumbling block. The same could be said for the most of the rest of the field who struggled with the course conditions, players like Ronald Ross and Linton Bell overcame the conditions to post respectable scores to finish second and third respectively but neither would top the man on a mission the silent assassin himself Ian Higgins who’s 37 points topped the table on the first day and lined himself up for the 2nd and the top prize.

The nearest the pin, longest drive and nearest in two prizes were also hosted on the first day of the weekend with the winners being Roan McLeod for the longest drive, Frank McCook for the nearest the pin and Ian Higgins for the nearest the pin in two.

It was a long first day and an evening meal and rest was a very welcome sight. After a good night’s rest day two followed on the Premier course, a course in much better condition and better layout, it had more of a club feel and this wasn’t by accident since it’s the original 18 holes for the club called Portal Golf Club. The challenge for the day was to now chase down Mr Higgins who was now on a mission to cancel the bridesmaid stereo type that was getting too close for comfort, he had been runner up on previous occasions but was trying start a new trend. The day started with players going out in the same groupings as before. There was no nearest the pin or longest drive to compete for it was full concentration on winning the weekends final major and for some collating enough points to be the seasons champion golfer. The better course conditions brought new names to the top of the leader board, Mary Riley provided the best score on day two with 36 points which was a solid round of golf, the course was challenging with some long par 4’s so to score 36 points was an excellent score from Mary. In second on the day and playing with an injured hand was Chris Powell, who missed out on the longest drive the previous day but in 3rd place with 32 points was the silent assassin Ian Higgins. His 37 points on day one and 32 on day two combined to be the overall winning score of 69 points for the weekend’s event, winning the Charlie Sifford Memorial Trophy and at the same time winning his first Order of Merit title. It was a clean sweep of wins for the most consistent golfer of the season. With numerous long drive prizes throughout the season Ian has now completed the set with a major win and the one he’s been trying for the last few seasons the Order of Merit. In second place for the weekends event was Linton Bell and 3rd went to Eddie Wedderburn.

It was a good weekend 24 golfers turned up to compete for the various prizes on offer but Ian Higgins took the honours. Thanks to the staff at McDonald Portal for making it a successful weekend event.

Round 1

Round 2

Final Result