Peter enjoys his hat-trick of aces (From Messenger Newspapers)

Peter enjoys his hat-trick of aces

4:47pm Thursday 11th October 2012 in Trafford Sport

PETER Ferneyhough has enjoyed playing at his beloved Ringway GC for the past 36 years but had not achieved a hole-in-one over his own course.

The nine-handicapper has only recently returned to golf full-time after undergoing a heart by-pass operation and he was looking forward to playing in his club’s annual charity am am.

The par three 150-yard eighth hole had been selected as a Pro Challenge against former Ringway junior star Alec Hogben to raise money for charity.

But against a strong wind nine-handicap Peter decided to use his trusty five-iron and to the delight of his playing partners and himself he certainly left Alec stranded as his tee shot went into the hole for a well-celebrated ace at the 19th hole.

Peter said: “It was my third ace with the others coming at Prestbury then Bramhall some 15 years ago.

“Because of the shape of the greens I did not actually see either of them go into the hole and it was the same this time with the raised green on our eighth hole.

“Ironically it was seen by my playing partner Kevin Blackwell, the club President, who was also playing with me and witnessed the first one I got at Prestbury and it certainly helped the team score as the points gained lifted us to second place in the team competition.”

In the 1990’s John Watson was a top playing pro in the Manchester Alliance and North Regions with several ‘major’ titles to his credit and he also qualified for the Open Championship at St Andrews.

In more recent years John has concentrated his energies on teaching golf with great success and was recently voted into the top 100 coaches in the country.

John, who was professional at Flixton for a number of years and is now based at Styal, decided to enjoy playing in the latest Manchester Alliance fixture at Styal and he certainly showed his class.

He had the top individual pro return of 41 points with his round of 65 seeing him clear of Peter Barber (Didsbury) 38, and Grant Hamerton (Pike Fold) 37.

But in the pro am section John had to give way to the pairing of Jon Cheetham (1836 Tour) and his regular partner John Riley of Swinton Park who led in with 44 points.

Next in was Alliance Captain Kris Andrews (Ashton-on-Mersey) and his amateur club colleague Jay Seddon who won a cpo on 43 points from John Watson and Craig Hill (Reddish Vale).

Leading in the am am section were Terry Gilbert (Ashton-on-Mersey) and his Altrincham partner Paul McDonald who won a cpo on 44 points from John Hollingworth and Dave Hemingway (Chorley) and Marcus Corfield and John Grimes of Hart Common.

The Inter Club Knock Outs organised by the Manchester Alliance and played from March to October are the biggest of their kind in the UK.

With well over 100 clubs in the Alliance the KO competitions give thousands of players the chance to represent their clubs over the season and involve professionals, men, ladies and juniors who have great pride in being chosen by their clubs to take part.

The three adult finals produced superb competitions, almost rivalling the Ryder Cup, as they each went to the 18th green before the destiny of the various trophies was decided.

In the Dunham Forest Trophy, involving the club professional and the top six amateurs the winners were Leigh who beat Denton 4-3 with Harwood and Northenden reaching the semi-finals.

The Archie Preston Trophy for Mixed Foursomes was held at Werneth GC and again another thriller saw Tytherington emerge with a 4-3 win over Dunscar with the beaten semi-finalists being Turton and Blackburn.

The final adult competition was won at Davyhulme Park by Bolton Old Links by 4-3 over Denton with the beaten semi-finalists being Haydock Park and Prestwich.

There remains the Williams BMW Junior Team Challenge to be played between Styal and Leigh who had accounted for Rochdale and Lymm respectively in their last four clashes.

The final will be held at the traditional venue of Lowes Park.

Alliance secretary has had the huge task of organising the four competitions and he said: “The competitions are fiercely fought in the best of sporting spirit and my thanks go to the club team organisers for all of their efforts over a very busy and difficult season.

“The Manchester Alliance is the biggest in the country and continues to attract new clubs with Stockport, Portal Premier and Sandbach joining in recent months to take our membership to 111 clubs with over 60,000 golfers.