Mount Juliet Golf Notes

Winter Series

The final of the Winter Series was played last Thursday and it resulted in a victory for regular competitor, Pat McEvoy, who hails from Johnstown, Co. Kilkenny but plays his golf at Thurles Golf Club. Pat returned an excellent 38 points off the white tees. It was intended that the final would be played from the blue tees but because of the present spell of wet weather the finalists felt that the course of almost 7000 yards was long enough from the whites.

Some of the scoring on the day was of a very high standard and none more so than the winner who had nines of 17 and 21 points respectively.

The runner-up, Trevor Gough, scored 21 points on the first nine holes and 15 points on the last nine holes. In third place came Matty Byrne with 32 points. All qualifiers in the final were entertained to dinner and presented with their prizes and the overall winners on the day received very attractive prizes compliments of Mount Juliet Golf Club.

Results Winter Series

Winner : Pat McEvoy (14)      Thurles G.C.           38 points

Second : Trevor Gough (17)  Clonmel G.C.            36 points

Third :     Matty Byrne (15)     Gowran Park G.C.   32 points

Inter Club Competitions

The first round of the Inter Club Competitions was played last weekend when the club was pitted against Waterford in the Leinster Fourball. Unfortunately after winning the two home matches they lost all three matches away in Waterford. This was a disappointing result for the manager of the team, Kevin McCartan, who had put so much effort into preparing his charges.

One of the highlights of Bryan Phelan’s round in his match with his partner, Frank Kelly, at Mount Juliet was holing out his second shot at the 12th which helped both of them to a convincing victory over their southern opponents. The other home pairing of Padraic O’Connor and Ken MacDonald won their match on the 16th. At Waterford the home team was in control throughout and Jim Blanchfield and his partner Ronan Murphy came nearest to causing a surprise by bringing their opponents to the 17th before succumbing. The next match in the Inter Club series is in the Barton Cup against neighbours Kilkenny.

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 main event of the year took place last weekend with the running of the two Captains’ Prizes for the ladies and men of the club on Saturday last. There was a large turnout of members and both prizes went to two players who had not featured for some time on the winners podium and congratulations is the order of the day to both players.

In the Lady Captain’s (Sheila MacDonald) section pride of place went to Mary Divilly who had a great score of 41 points and she won convincingly by 3 shots from her nearest opponent. In the Captain’s (Billy Murphy) Prize, John Mulholland just got the better of Andrew Nixon on a countback with both players scoring 39 points.

In the ladies section Mary scored 17 points on her first nine holes having failed to score at the 2nd and 8th holes. But despite this setback she more than compensated by scoring a whopping 24 points on the last nine holes to win by three shots from Amelia Drumm. The winner of the Junior Prize was Darcey Carr (14) who returned a fine score of 38 points to pip Jake Beirne (2) by a point. As a result of this score Jake is now eligible to play in the British Boys championship.

John and Andrew had the more traditional finish to their rounds as John failed to score on the 16th to hand the initiative back to Andrew but he in turn double bogied the same hole to lose on the countback. Unfortunately for Andrew, he also failed to score on the par three, 3rd hole, but I am sure there were always plenty of “if only” tales on the day. The day concluded with a dinner and social evening in the Hunters Yard until the early hours.

Results

Men

Winner: John Mulholland (20) 39 points (last nine)

Runner: Up Andrew Nixon (11) 39 points

Category 1: Alan Hoyne (8) 38 points

Category 2: Phelim O’Connor (16) 37 points

Category 3: Paul Carty (20) 33 points

Best Gross: David Kelly (5) 32 points

Past Captain: Peter Quigley (7) 37 points

Visitor: Matt Walsh (6) 32 points

First Nine: Michael Brennan (12) 20 points

Second Nine: Stephen Price (9) 21 points

Par 3’s: Gerard Magee (19) 11 points

Par 5’s: Frank Bowen (13) 10 points

Ladies

Winner: Mary Divilly (27) 41 points

Runner Up: Amelia Drumm (29) 38 points

Third: Rebecca Nixon (17) 37 points

Past Captain: Brenda Fitzgerald (21) 29 points

Visitor: Annette Kelly (34) 22 points

First Nine: Norma Sullivan (30) 22 points

Second Nine: Ruth Skehan (36) 18 points

Par 3’s: Emma O’Connor (36) 18 points

Par 5’s: Dorothy Doyle (17) 11 points

Winners Presentation
L to R : Sean O’Neill , Sheila MacDonald (Lady Captain), Mary Divilly,
John Mulholland, Billy Murphy (Mens Captain)

Inter Club competitions & McCalmont Cup Matchplay

The last team standing in the Inter Club competitions unfortunately made their exit last week. The Ladies Intermediate Trophy team were comprehensively beaten by a very strong Enniscorthy team on a scoreline of 4/1 and they now qualify for a place in the quarter-final.

In the McCalmont Cup Matchplay the competition has reached the semi-final stages with Tom Duggan playing Alan Hoyne and Sally Gleeson playing Jimmy Brett. Both semi-finals are due to be played before the end of July.