SUPER STEW TAKES ROUTE 66

The vast majority of members at County Armagh Golf Club would bite your hand off to shoot a gross 68 once in a lifetime. Stewart Stevenson, however, was unwilling to settle for that even as the high point of a single playing weekend because, after posting that awesome number in the Open competition on 4 August, he went lower again 24 hours later. Golfing gluttony is a terrible vice.

In the Club Stableford event on 5 August, Stevenson responded to an opening bogey by firing birdies at the 2nd, 6th, 8th, 9th, 12th and 13th and dropping only one further shot. The winning Sunday scorecard showed a three-under par front nine and a one-under-par homeward trek, as Stewart dismissed the challenge posed by the city course in a measly 66 strokes. This was a stunning two-day showing from the silver-haired two-handicapper.

Stewart's accruing 42 points left him two clear of the overall runner-up, Michael Calvert, who amassed four birdies of his own including an incredible hat-trick of front-nine 2's. Calvert has had his handicap pruned to 12 on account of his excellent and eventful gross 79 but is likely still regretting his costly decision not to enter that day's 2's club!

The 9th was just one of six holes that Stewart Stevenson birdied on his way to a majestic gross 66 on 5 August.