Mount Juliet Golf Notes

To herald the arrival of Spring the final rounds of both the Open Winter Series and the Members Winter League concluded last week. The popular Winter Series for teams of four concluded with an 18 holes singles stableford for all the players who qualified over the past few months and this was played last Wednesday in testing conditions off the white tees. The impressive winner was former Limerick hurler, Liam O’ Donoghue, who left the remainder of the field in his wake by returning a very impressive 40 points. Liam had nines of 20 points respectively and would have been an evewn easier winner but for failing to score on the long 18th. Liam was chased home by another clubman, Tom McDarby, some four shots behind on 36 points. In third place came another Munster man, John Nevin, from Thurles G.C. Liam picked up a nice prize of a stay in Mount Juliet House which includes dinner, spa treatment and golf for two people. This concluded the popular series for 2011/12 and will be followed soon by the Summer Series for teams of four.

The other competition which was confined to members and which was concluded last Sunday was the final round of the Winter League. The last round of the competition on Sunday was won by Ted Hoyne with a fine score of 40 points. In second place on 38 points came this year’s captain, Alan Hoyne, who was three shots clear of third placed, Tim Kavanagh, on 35 points. The league proved to be a repeat win for last year’s winner and long time leader Alan Hearn. Alan won the overall from Frank Kelly with this year’s captain Alan Hoyne in third place.

Next Sunday sees the McCalmont Cup match play get underway with the running of the April Monthly Medal and 48 qualifiers will emerge from next Sunday to do battle over the next few months for the trophies. This year the format will be slightly changed as there will be two competitions in the match play event. Thirty two men will qualify for the match play stages and there will be a separate competition for sixteen ladies who also qualify on scores returned. In previous years the ladies and men did battle for the same trophy but because of the keen interest shown, the Committee decided to run a separate competition simultaneously for each category and both of them will carry Golfer of the Year points. This is the second round of the monthly medal competitions and this medal will also carry G. O.Y. points for both the ladies and men. The early leaders in the G.O.Y. are Kevin McCartan and Imelda Drumm.

Results Winter Series Final Wednesday 4th April

Winner: Liam O’ Donoghue (19) Limerick G. C.……….. 40 points.

Second: Tom McDarby (18) Limerick G.C………………   36 points.

Third: John Nevin (14) Thurles G.C……………………….  35 points.

Mixed fortunes on the Inter Club scene last week with three teams in action.

The first team to play was the Ladies Challenge Cup team who played Wexford ladies at Borris G. C. and they came out the wrong side of a 3/2 result. The next team to play last Saturday was in the Duggan Cup and they were pitted against the men of Callan G.C. with the advantage of the odd match of five pairings favouring Callan. Sad to relate the Mount Juliet team were comprehensively beaten and they suffered a “white wash” losing all five matches in the competition. This left the Irish Mixed Foursomes team to fly the flag on Sunday and they did this in style albeit by only the narrowest margin on a scoreline of 3/2. This team played Gowran G.C. with the advantage of the odd match falling to Mount Juliet. When the home team lost two of the three matches played at Mount Juliet the signs were ominous but the away pairings of Richard Duggan/Myra Phelan with husband/ wife pairing of Andrew and Rebecca Nixon proved to be formidable opposition for Gowran. While Richard and Myra won on the 17th Andrew and Rebecca had to go to the 20th hole before clinching the vital victory. This team now progress to the next round to play the winners of Carlow and Athy.

Last Sunday saw another competition in the Member/Guest series and the format was a team of four with two scores to count on the first seventeen holes and three scores to count on the last hole. This was won on a countback by a combination of players form Callan, Kilkenny and Mount Juliet with 97 points who just beat the Thurles based team by a better last nine holes.

Next Sunday sees the final round of the Winter Series for 2011/2012 with a handsome prize on offer to the overall winner.

Results Member/Guest Four Person Team Event
Sunday 1st April

The first monthly medal of the season was played for last Sunday with play off the white tees. With the “man above” giving us a lovely day there was a great turnout for this competition and it was also the first round of the Golfer of the Year with points allotted to ten competitors in both categories. The best score of the day was returned by Kevin McCartan who had a very fine score of 39 points and duly won his category and is the early leader in the G.O.Y. competition. With the course playing all of it’s 7,000 yards in length, Kevin put together a very consistent round, scoring nines of 19 and 20 points respectively for an impressive win. The other categories were won by Frank Murray, category 1, with 35 points on a countback from John O’ Dwyer and category 3 was won by Tim Kavanagh with a score of 34 points. No other player in category 3 broke 30 points which is a testament to the difficulty of the course as encountered by players in this category.

Frank Murray had nines of 16 and 19 points respectively and dropped two shots to par on the back nine, at the 13th and 18th holes. Tim scored 18 points and 16 points and blanked the par fives, 5th and 10th.
In the ladies’ medal competition victory went to last year’s Golfer of the Year, Amelia Drumm, who off her new handicap of 18 for 2012 still scored a fine 37 points for victory. She was four shots clear of her nearest opponent Myra Phelan and Amelia has begun where she left off in 2011- on a winning note. Amelia scored 18 and 19 points respectively for each nine holes.

Another notable feat was performed by Ray Moore who had his first ever hole in one on the 11th where he played a seven iron tee shot to complete a great feat, unfortunately it did not encourage him sufficiently to score for the remaining seven holes. However he had plenty of friends awaiting his arrival in the clubhouse to toast his unique achievement.
Next Sunday there is a Member/Guest 4 person team event and tee times can be booked for this competition on-line or by a phone call to the shop.

Results Monthly Medal Sunday 25th March

Category 1. Frank Murray (5)…………………35 pts.(C.S.S. 33pts)
Category 2. Kevin McCartan(14)…………….39 pts.
Category 3. Tim Kavanagh(17)……………….34 pts.
Ladies Amelia Drumm(18)………………………37 pts.(C.S.S. 34pts)