Norman grills the Strand course

His day opened with a birdie three and although a couple of bogeys made their way onto his card at two and three another birdie fluttered in at the par five seventh to see him gather sixteen points for the first seven holes. Norman’s bogey five at the ninth hole was to be his last as he continued to build up an impressive points haul.

The final hole, the par five fourteenth, was reduced to three shots by Norman and the resulting four points was to prove crucial as runner up Martin O’Kane, also playing off five, matched Norman’s points of 34 but ‘only’ managed a birdie four at the same hole to lose out on countback!

I say only managed a birdie but this was not intended to be disparaging to Martin, he played very well from the outset, with a birdie three at the long par four fifth being his first departure from par, to have 16 points bagged at half time. He would have been disappointed with his six at the seventh but a series of pars led him on to scoring birdie fours at the last two holes to get into the mix but come out with a turkey instead of the Hamper.

Third place, and a turkey, was taken by another five handicapper Desi Ballentine with the best of the five 32 pointers. The others were Sammy McQuiston, Martin Hughes, Sean McGahon and Bobby Millar. Richard Clarke was the best of those 31 points scorers and took the tenth and final prize.