Andy Borg captures coveted honour

The Phoenicia Scratch Challenge, a two-day competition and one of the most important on the Royal Malta Golf Club calendar, has been held since 1891 except during wartime.

The first Maltese golfer to win this competition was Lino Satariano in 1979, prior to that it was primarily Service individuals.

Satariano’s sons, Peter and Stefan, played in the Phoenicia Scratch recently and the former finished fifth overall.

Other notable previous winners of the Scratch were Alfred Zammit who won on sevens occasions, as has Andy Borg.

This year, the competition was played in glorious sunshine on both days.

After Day One, Andy Borg was in a commanding position with 63 shots, leading from Chris Bergedahl with 70 and Kim Borg with 72.

On Day Two these three golfers were pitted together in the last flight. Bergedahl is still a teenager and Kim Borg has already had his ‘KartaAnzjan’ for five years. Andy Borg is somewhere in the middle. So, it speaks volumes for the old man!

Day Two produced great excitement. On the first 10 holes, all three leaders had the same gross score but the final results did not alter spectacularly.

Andy Borg eventually emerged winner with an excellent aggregate score for the two days of 131, that being 63 and 68 for each day. Bergedahl was second with 140 and Kim Borg held on to third with 146. Nicholas Laferla was fourth on 149.

Running concurrently with this competition was the Hackers Trophy for those, and there are many of them, with a handicap of 19 and above.

Ralph Asciak won for the third time in six years with a net 65 followed by George Iles with 66 on a count-back from his brother John and Hamid Krimat.