The Final leg of the Golfer  of the Year, the September Monthly Medal will take place next Sunday 24^th September.

The winner of the Golfer of the Year is based on the total number of points accumulated from a competitor’s best 7 scores from the 12 Golfer of the Year events.  In each competition 10 points are awarded if a player’s net score equals the Competition Scratch Score, with one additional point awarded for every shot better than CSS and one point deducted for every shot below CSS.

After eleven rounds of the competition the Leader board is as follows:

Mick Aherne is well placed to make it a double in 2017, given that he effectively has the Gross Medal of the Year “sewn up” and “In the bag”.  A slight cause for concern here however is that Mick’s 79 points were all scored in the first 7 competitions of the year and his last 3 scores have all been non-counting.  Can Mick produce the goods under pressure on the big stage next Sunday is the question on everyone’s lips?

Ciaran Barker would appear to Mick’s main threat and he started the year with a very impressive 43 points total in the first four competitions but his end-of-season form has dipped slightly with a 9 pointer in the August monthly Medal being the only real bright spot since the middle of June.  He is now only 1 point behind Mick and must be seen as a genuine contender.

The real dark horse here however must be Chris Alcock.  Having played in only one of the first five competitions and scored what can best be described as a respectable 9 points, the keys to his trophy cabinet never looked in danger of being touched for at least another year.  An incredible 57 points in 5 competitions since 5^th July however has seen Chris leapfrog most of the field into a brilliant third place.  While he must be disappointed with a 4 pointer in the Centenary Trophy last week, he will be consoled by the fact that this 4 pointer effectively gives him a 5 shot advantage over Mick and Ciaran next week, but he will still have to produce a 14 pointer if he wants to lift the trophy.

Congratulations to Paul Daniels who produced the best score of the year to date, a magical 18 points in the August Monthly Medal.  In all 287 players have completed and the full table of scores is available here. GOY Table

The Final leg of the Gross Medal of the Year, the September Monthly Medal will take place next Sunday 24^th September.

Because of the cancellation of the St. Patricks Cup in March, this competition kicked off with the April Monthly Medal and has been keenly contested along the way.   The only requirement for qualification is that competitors must have competed in 7 of the 12 GOY strokes competitions.  Eleven have now been completed and the top of the table looks like this:

While this may at first glance appear to be a “done deal” given that Mick Aherne has a clear lead, Kingsley Lewis is not necessarily completely out of the picture.  If he can find the course record form of a few years ago and post a first ever Skerries Golf Club 59 he will be able to drop the 81 recorded in the June Medal and assuming that Mick doesn’t improve on his lowest score of 78 in the Holmpatrick Cup, this would leave both players tied on a score of 543.  If Kingsley can go even one better and record a 58 he may even win the trophy outright.  Suffice if to say however that Paddy Power are refusing to take bets on this one.

Second place is up for grabs and John O’Brien has some work to do to pass Kingsley given that he also has an 81 to discard.  Paul Byrne too may also have something to say on this.  An 86 in the Holmpatrick Cup may seem like a disadvantage, but if he can produce the form that we all know he can in next weeks finale, dropping the 86 for something in the 70’s could easily propel him into the silver medal position. (For the record, I don’t believe there is an actual Silver Medal for second place)

In all 121 players have completed 6 rounds or more at this stage in the competition and the full table of scores is available Table