Double delight for Dwayne

DWAYNE Mallon enjoyed a weekend to remember recently when he not only scooped the gross prize during Dungannon’s President’s Day, but then went on to win the Magee 1866 Scratch Cup at Donegal Golf Club.

The Dungannon man shot a two-under-par round at his home club on the Friday to win Noel Gormley’s gross prize and then on the Saturday he recorded a level par 73 during the first round at Murvagh before firing in a six-under-par 67 to win the coveted Scratch Cup – his second such triumph of the season after winning the Strabane Scratch Cup a month earlier.

“It was a brilliant weekend,” he beamed. “I played the President’s Prize on the Friday because I knew I was going to be away on the Saturday and that was a great result too, thank goodness.”

It was nip and tuck at Murvagh, however, as Omagh native Oscar Murphy was in the clubhouse after scoring a course record seven-under-par 66 to lead on five-under overall before Mallon sunk his final putt on the 36th hole of the competition to seal the victory by just one stroke in the end.

And Mallon feels it was his putting which made the difference on the day, particularly during that second round.

“I got the putter going – I played the exact same way in the first round, had some great chances, but the putter was so cold,” he observed.

“But then, it got going on the second 18 and when the putter gets going I tend to go low, which is what happened.”

Next up for Mallon is the North of Ireland Amateur Championship in mid-September at Portstewart Golf Club’s Strand course when he hopes to continue his good form.

“To get an Irish title would be deadly, so that would be the main goal [for the rest of the year],” he said.

In the meantime, you can watch Dwayne’s on course efforts on the Timmy Jordan Golf YouTube channel as he and his Dungannon club-mate play some of Ireland’s top courses.