Mount Juliet Golf Notes

The Ladies Intermediate Cup and Challenge Cup teams made their exits from the respective competitions last week and so there are only two teams left flying the flag over the next few weeks. The Duggan Cup team is in action this week against Castlecomer in the last competition for the men and the Miele Fourball team will be the only team left in the ladies competitions.

In the Challenge Cup the ladies were beaten by Rathsallagh at Carlow and it looked like the match could go all the way but the vital match was lost on the 18th. The Intermediate Cup team had to concede a walkover to their opponents as they unfortunately could not field a full team on the day.

The Summer Series for teams of four players for June took place last week as well and this resulted in a victory for a team from the Thurles area of Tipperary. The winners returned a fine score of 89 points and just edged out a team comprising of friends from Donegal, Tipperary and Wicklow on a countback over the last nine holes. The winners recorded nines of 41 and 48 points as against 45 and 44 points by the runners-up. The next competition in the series takes place on Wednesday 7th July for teams of four people, ladies or gents, with two scores to count on each hole and tee reservations can be made by phoning 056/7773071 or 7773064.

Next Saturday the Captains Prizes takes place and it appears that the weather will keep fine and sunny. There is a full timesheet with the first players commencing their round at 7.30am.

Results Summer Series Wednesday 16th June

Last Sunday saw one of the “majors” decided with the running of the Jack Nicklaus Trophy for both the ladies and men.

With a very large entry, on the only really nice day that came this year, the scoring was very competitive amongst the members.  The winner and holder of the trophy for 2009/2010 is David Kelly who scored 38 points off 5 handicap.  David had nines of 18 and 20 points respectively scoring a 75 gross and dropped shots to par on the 2nd ,13th and 18th holes and added a double bogie on the 4th , but for all this he recorded birdies on the 1st and 12th for a three over par total.  He won from Hugh O’Connor who also recorded 38 points but with a inferior last nine holes.  Hugh had 21 points on the first nine holes but could only add 17 points for the back nine.  In third place came John Carr with 36 points, which represented a one over gross total of 73 shots.

The ladies section was won by Sally Gleeson with 36 points, playing off 13 handicap, she had nines of 20 and 16 points respectively and just got home from Lynda Hickey with 35 points and in third place came Sandra Carr with 32 points.  The Carr family rounded up the day on a high note as young Darcey Carr won the special junior prize with 38 points, great scoring off her handicap of 15.  This result means that Lynda Hickey holds a commanding lead in the Golfer of the Year (Ladies) competition with 32 points and she leads by 8 points from Sally Gleeson and Ruth Mulholland who are tied with 24 points.

The Golfer of the Year (Men) competition is a getting a slight “strung out” look also after the Nicklaus Trophy with John Carr in the lead with 24 points followed by John Brennan and Jim Cusack with 19 and 15 points respectively.

Results

Winner                       David Kelly (5)                    38 points

Second                      Hugh O’Connor (13)            38 points

Third                          John Carr (1)                      36 points

1st Nine                      Jim Cusack (14)                 22 points

2nd Nine                      Kevin McCartan (17)           20 points

Ladies:

Winner                       Sally Gleeson (13)              36 points

Second                      Lynda Hickey (26)              35 points

Third                          Sandra Carr (20)                 32 points

Special Junior Prize         Darcey Carr (15)                 38 points

On the Inter Club front only two teams survive in their respective competitions.  The only men’s team to continue are pitted against Castlecomer in the Leinster Fourball and the Ladies Intermediate Cup team play Enniscorthy in the third round of that competition.  This team had a fine win against Woodlands in the previous round winning by the odd match of five, Mary Fulton getting the required win.

Good news on the Inter Club front as the first of the teams took centre stage this weekend. The first team “out of the blocks” were the Leinster Fourball Men’s team and they were pitted against Waterford G. C. with Mount Juliet having the home advantage of three matches in Mount Juliet and two matches away in Waterford. Nice to report that the three home pairings duly won. In the first game John Thompson and John Flynn played sparkling golf to win by a wide margin and this was followed by another convincing win by Tommy Butler and his partner Chris Mc Hugh. At this stage of the proceedings things were looking ominous at Waterford where the first Mount Juliet pairing of Tim Kavanagh and Ned Sullivan had lost and the last pairing of Kevin McCartan and Owen O’ Mahony were down in their match. The final pairing at Mount Juliet were Pat Hegarty and Finbar O’ Neill and they duly wrapped up proceedings with a win on the 16th. At that stage Kevin and Owen had succumbed on the 17th green. So a second round match against Arklow now looms on the horizon with the advantage of the odd match of five going to the Wicklow club.

On Monday the next team into battle were the Ladies Minor Cup team and they were against the might of Rosslare. After a titanic struggle I am happy to report that they also tasted victory but only just. Margaret O’ Rourke started off the victory by winning on the 16th and this was followed by Margaret O’ Shea who also won on the 16th. While all this was going on Sarah Jane Costello was slugging it out with Trish Devereaus of Rosslare and this match went to the 21st hole before Trish produced the winning putt. In Rosslare, Rebecca Nixon and Susan Mahony represented Mount Juliet in the final matches and after Rebecca lost her match the issue was finely balanced with the result standing at two matches each. But true to form Susan came up trumps by securing victory on the 19th and so this team now progress to play the winners of the Coolattin/Faithlegg match.

Also on Monday the Ladies Intermediate Cup team were in action against Mountrath with Mount Juliet also enjoying the advantage of the odd match of five. At Mount Juliet the Lady Captain Brona Reidy set a fine example by winning her match against Maud Mc Glynn on the 16th but only after Pearl Brennan had executed a convincing 6 and 5 win over Mountrath’s Celine Dunphy Unfortunately Jo Duggan for the home team lost her match on the 17th and so the final result rested with either Helen Comerford or Myra Phelan producing a win at Mountrath. Again experience paid off with Myra securing the necessary win.The team now progresses to the next round against the winners of the GowranPark/Callan match A good weekend on the team front with a 100% winning result and congratulations to players and selectors all round.