Mount Juliet Golf Notes

Last weekend saw the first team trials held for the coming year’s inter club competitions with the Duggan Cup Foursomes panel in action. With 20 players involved some very interesting partnerships were pitted against each other over the full 18 holes and the whole day was a great success especially in dusting off the cobwebs for some of the members involved. Great credit must go to Norman Kilroy, who manages the team, for his early involvement and enthusiasm in preparing this team over the past few years. Hopefully the team can achieve some degree of success in the competition to reward his stewardship.

On Sunday a member/guest fourball stableford took place over the full course. With the recent rainfall, conditions were on the softer side of good ground but the competition itself produced some excellent scoring with 44 points securing the prizes on offer. The winning pair of Michael Byrne and his partner Tom McCormack secured victory on a countback over the last six holes. The runners-up were the father and son combination of John and Conor Mulholland and they were left to rue scoring a double bogey six on the last hole which cost them overall first prize. Both partnerships scored 22 points on each nine holes and as pointed out earlier victory was only gained on the usual breakdown over the last nine holes.

The popular Open Winter Series for teams of four players, of any combination, makes a welcome return on Wednesday 13th February and tee times may be booked through reservations or the golf shop.

Results Member/Guest Fourball Stableford

Last Saturday saw the annual “drive-in” for the new Captains of 2013 take place and on a day of unseasonal mild
weather, a large turnout of members and friends had an enjoyable days golf. This was followed by a social evening and the day ended up with a very enjoyable dinner in Kendals Restaurant on Saturday night. The new Captains for 2013 are Dermot Divilly who took over from Alan Hoyne and Dorothy Kilroy who took over from Ruth Mulholland. Both new Captains were presented with their blazers at a function held in the Hunter’s yard. As is the custom for the past few years the Captains were driven by pony and cart to the front of the clubhouse where they “drove “ into office by each hitting a drive down the practice ground.

Before all the formalities of the day a very enjoyable two person scramble took place over each nine holes which produced some hot scoring. Best score of the day was produced by the husband and wife pairing of Ger Dowling and Karen Murphy who returned a one over par gross score of 37 shots for an impressive 27 shots nett score which won the first nine hole prize. The winners of the second nine hole prize were Pat Fitzpatrick and Dermot Fennelly who had a level par round of 36 shots which yielded a nett score of 31 shots.

Results of Nine Holes 2 Person Scramble Saturday 5th January

First Nine Holes

Second Nine Holes

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.