Mount Juliet Golf Notes

Next Sunday sees the April Monthly Medal down for decision and the top 16 players will qualify for the McCalmont Cup Matchplay. This competition is unique to the club as the ladies and men are eligible to compete against each other in the match play rounds. There will also be points available for Golfer of the Year in both the ladies and men’s sections of the medal as well as the winner and runner-up of the match play.

Last weekend saw two more teams in action in the inter club competitions. The first team in action was the Barton Cup team and they were pitted against Kilkenny. Unfortunately for Mount Juliet, Kilkenny had a convincing victory winning by an overall margin of 4 ½ to ½. Kilkenny won all three matches at home and then proceeded to win another at Mount Juliet with the final match halved on the 18th. Two of the matches at Kilkenny went to the 17th with the other match finishing at the 16th.

The ladies team played Waterford Castle at Callan in the Challenge Cup and I am pleased to report that Mount Juliet had a convincing victory by winning the first three matches and the other two matches were called in. The first three winners were Anne Daly, Anne Murphy and Ruth Skehan with Wendy Beirne and Mary Cotter called in as the overall result could not be altered. Because of new conditions laid out by the I.L.G.U., all matches must now be played at neutral venues hence the match having to be played at Callan Golf Club. This was a nice start to the ladies campaign and hopefully they can go a lot further in this competition as they appear to have a strong team managed by Myra Phelan. In the next round they play Bunclody at Rathsallagh Golf Club.

The club took part in the annual outing for the Irish Association of Golf Club Secretary’s Trophy at Ballybunion last Monday. The team comprises of the Captain, Greenkeeper, Professional and Secretary and this year were represented by Jim Cusack, Robbie Anderson, Sean Cotter and Sean O’Neill. The team finished a creditable fourth out of a total of over twenty teams representing clubs from all over Ireland.

The inter club draws for this year have been completed by the Leinster Branch of the G. U. I. and Mount Juliet have some stern tests in front of them if they are to make any progress. The Pierce Purcell Shield qualifying round will be held in Enniscorthy Golf Club on Saturday 22nd May with the top four qualifiers out of 10 teams going through to the match play stages on the following day. In the Barton Cup, the opponents are near neighbours Kilkenny, with the home advantage resting with Kilkenny. The Leinster Fourball team are also away to Waterford and the Irish Mixed Foursomes team are drawn against Bunclody with Mount Juliet getting the home advantage. All matches have to be played by early April so the managers of the various teams have a busy two months to prepare their respective panels of players.

The draws for the competitions in the Midland District of the ladies branch of the I.L.G.U. will be made this week and these draws will be available on their website soon.

Next week, weather permitting, sees the next round of the popular Winter Series and tee times can be booked by phoning 056/7773071 or 77773064.

The grand final of the Marble City Travel sponsored Winter Series was played last week and it resulted in a win for John Mahon from Carrick on Suir who just pipped Kevin Fennelly on a countback.  John had won the series in 2006 with a score of 33 points but he improved that score by just one shot this year to capture the prize again.  Curiously enough, it was also on a countback that he won in 2006 and this year he had the better back nine against the Gowran Park man.  Kevin will rue the fact that he failed to score on  the long 17^th, when going well, which eventually decided the outcome of the final.

On a pleasant Spring day, 26 golfers had endured the long winter to qualify for the playoffs and Mount Juliet was playing every bit of it’s 7300 yards off the blue tees.  Quite a few players had a good first nine holes but faltered on the homeward nine.  All qualifiers received their prizes at a dinner that evening and the winning three players also received very attractive prizes from the sponsor of the event this year, Marble City Travel.  In third place in the final came Martin Devlin from Rathdowney Golf Club.

After the conclusion of a successful series the Summer Series will kick off in late May and this will run until September with a 4 person team event each month and like last year will have a shotgun start at 2.30 each day.

The ladies invitation days had it’s first start of 2009 last Wednesday and there was a full turnout for the 3 person scramble.  The winning trio consisted of Brona Reidy with her playing partners, Pauline McEnery and Maeve O’Reilly, who had over three shots to spare on the Kilkenny trio of Margaret McCreery, Phyl Doyle and Paula Bradbury.

Last Sunday the Member/Guest 4 person team competition was played and although there was a small entry on a cold, windy day it did not upset the winners from scampering home with first prize with a very good score of 96 points.  The winning team consisted of members Pat Doyle and Kevin McCartan who with their guests Emmett McGregor and Noel McCartan had nines of 46 and 50 points respectively to win very impressively by 9 clear points.

In the Inter Club competitions Mount Juliet had the Irish Mixed team in action against Wexford and the Barton Cup team pitted against near neighbours, Kilkenny.  Sad to relate both teams met with defeat to the opposition, but only after a protracted struggle, as both teams lost their vital matches on the last green.  The Ladies Minor Cup team was also in action this weekend against Athy, and sad to relate the Kildare club came out the winners by a margin of 3 matches to 2.  At Mount Juliet, both home players won and all three matches were lost at Athy, the vital match losing on the 18^th hole.

Results:  Marble City Travel Winter Series:

Winner       John Mahon (10) Carrick on Suir G.C.            34 points

Second      Kevin Fennelly (8) Gowran Park G.C. 34 points

Third          Martin Devlin (12) Rathdowney G.C. 32 points

Ladies Invitation Day  3 Person Scramble:

Winners Brona Reidy (14)

Maeve O’Reilly (14)

Pauline McEnery (36)                      64.2 shots

Second Margaret McCreery (15)

Phyl Doyle (10)

Paula Bradbury (16)                        67.9 shots