The round of 16 in this year’s Isle of Man Golf Championship were completed on Wednesday evening, having been suspended the previous day because of mist at Mount Murray.
Defending champion Robert Noon had a good size lead over young Freddie Dancox (Ramsey) when play was stopped on Tuesday and he continued to stamp his authority on the match when it resumed, winning by 5 and 3.
Dancox is off to college in the USA in August on a golf scholarship and it will be interesting to see what the coaches do with his undoubted talent when he returns for next year’s championship.
As is often the case, leading qualifier Daryl Callister (Castletown) fell at the opening stage of the match play losing by 4 and 3 to Chris Kneen from the same club.
Kneen now moves on to face his cousin Robert Noon in the next round which will be a good match to watch.
In the battle of the quiet men, it was Mark Sutton (Rowany) who built a big lead only for Stephen Skillicorn to start to win holes when his back was against the wall, but the task was too big and Sutton ran out a 3 and 2 victor.
The winners of the big two Isle of Man Golf competitions that have been completed so far this year – Jamie Arneil and Peter Glover – went head-to-head, with the latter having a lead overnight and pushing on to win by 5 and 4.
Danny Foulis (Ramsey) versus Joe Raeside (Mount Murray) was a close affair, with the lead changing hands until the back nine when Raeside ran out a 3 and 1 winner.
PJ Vermeulen (Castletown) played Kevin Moore (Douglas), both of whom are great ball strikers.
Moore was the winner of the championship last time it was played at Mount Murray but will not be repeating the feat this year, with Vermeulen moving into the quarter-finals after winning by 3 and 2.
Castletown clubmates Liam Cowin and Andrew Challenor had a right battle, with the latter holding the advantage late on only for Cowin to come back and take it into extra holes.
On the first extra hole a tangle with the trees was the undoing of Challenor, with Cowin going through.
In the last match out, Neil Caine (Mount Murray) was 1 up playing the last hole only to do a ‘Rory McIlroy’.
The one place he couldn’t hit it was out of bounds and he pulled his tee shot long and left over the out-of-bound fence. This took the match to extra holes, with Scott Donald winning on the first to progress.
The quarter-finals this evening (Thursday) start from the 12th hole at 5pm and the weather forecast is fair so let's hope to see some spectators supporting the golfers .
For order of play and score updates, visit https://www.isleofmangolf.im/website/go.php?id=47&page=10
ANDREW HORNE