Helensburgh Golf Club’s weekly Frostbite resumed on Sunday after the break and was won by John Waddell with 26 points.

Second place was hotly contested, with five tied on 25 points. The countback had to be applied twice, as the first cut resulted in Dougie Singleton and Roy Nesbitt leading the race for this spot with equal better inward halves.

Following the second cut for the last three holes, Dougie pipped it due to a brilliant three (nett 2) on the 10th for four Stableford points.

And Stuart Graham was delighted to win the scorecard raffle, and with a large field of 55 players contributing to the prize fund, took home a Wilson Golf Umbrella and some Srixon balls.

If the weather is kind there are seven available Sundays left to play, so there will be plenty of chance for players to get the mandatory six cards in and to keep improving their scores.

The winner and runner-up can look forward to a substantial prize voucher as the number of participants has been very high.  

There will also be the hole-in-one prize, with winter holes and forward tees; surely it has to be won soon.

Forty-six players played in Saturday’s Pro-shop 11-hole Stableford, where an in-form Mick Bone took the honours with 29 points.

Andy Donald and Bob Berry came joint second with 28 points.

It has been a tradition at Helensburgh Golf Club for more than 30 years for golfers to turn out on New Year’s Day and play a competition over 11 holes for the David Loch Pound, the ‘trophy’ having been presented by the former Club Secretary of the same name.

The 2017 competition was closely contested by 14 on a course which is coping extremely well with the deluges that have been pouring onto it in recent weeks.

Only one temporary green was in use due to frost.

David Hogg had the honour of the first drive of 2017 but his only other ‘claim to fame’ on the day was a 2 on the par 3 ninth.

Stableford scores of 25 were achieved by former Club Champion, Alan Scott and Ed Somerville.

A ‘play off’ also has a traditional format for this event which is decided under these circumstances by a ‘nearest the pin’ on the 18th green, teeing off from the first tee.

With a shot to within 15’ of the pin, Alan Scott started his golfing season well by having ‘played one and won one’ in competitions. Alan Blackstock was third on 23 points.

On December 27 HGC held its annual Christmas Cross Country Scramble with an excellent turn-out of 116 players making up teams of four.

The struggle for 1st place was extremely closely contested with only 0.1 separating three teams.

Honours were taken by the team of Jim McKenzie, Dougie Singleton, Robert Johnson and John Ford with a score of 31.7, each winning a £50 voucher.

In close second were the Donald family of Andy and son Shey with uncle Steven and David Kick scoring 31.8.

Again, a very close third were Tommy Darroch, Michael McKechnie, David Kennedy and Stephen Howie with 31.9.