Mount Juliet Golf Notes

This Thursday the last round of the Winter Series takes place and this will finalise the line-up for the Grand Final which takes place on Thursday 1st April. The final will be an 18 holes singles stableford from the white and red markers with the winner receiving the perpetual trophy and prize. All participants will receive a prize for qualifying for the final. There are a few spaces still left for intending players this week and competitors should phone the golf shop without delay to reserve a tee time. With the final such a short time away it will herald the end, I hope, of a long winter for all golfers who did not enjoy too much participation of their favourite sport over the past number of months. All qualifiers for the grand final will be advised of their respective tee times after Thursday’s qualifying round.

Next Sunday sees the first of the Monthly Medals down for decision. This, competition, as usual, will be an 18 holes singles stable ford with three categories in order of handicaps for the men and a separate ladies category. It is the first round in the Golfer of the Year competition for ladies and men and is confined to members. Tee times again may be booked by phoning the golf shop or on line for those wishing to play.

Is it ever going to stop freezing or will golf courses recover from the prolonged months of continuous sub zero temperatures. Like every other course Mount Juliet has had to endure its fair share of Artic weather and it now has the not so envious reputation of holding the record for this Winter of having the coldest recorded temperature in Ireland when on 7th January the gauge dipped to – 16.3 degrees.

The Winter Series got off the ground last Thursday after a three hour frost delay when the competition reverted to a shotgun start at 1pm. A Tipperary team comprising of four Clonmel members, ably led by Trevor Gough from Coolmore Stud, led the qualifiers with a good score of 90 points. The winners had nines of 47 and 43 points respectively and just held on by a point from another Munster dominated team who finished on 89 points.

Things looked rosy for the Clonmel contingent until they reached the 16th hole and here they could only muster 2 points between all four players. Again they had a rather shaky finish as they could only muster 4 points on the 18th where three scores could count. The runners-up also had cause to rue their finish as they could only scramble 2 points on the 15th and they scored 47 and 42 points respectively for both nines. But at the end of the day it was the Clonmel who qualified for the final in three weeks time.