Mount Juliet Golf Notes

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.

The Captains’( Terry Sullivan and Brona Reidy) Prizes were decided last weekend with some 40 players playing on Friday evening and the remaining 130 odd playing on Saturday. The Friday players were lucky in two ways as the conditions on Friday were so much better than Saturday with some heavy showers dotting the morning on Saturday. The second advantage that the Friday players had was that the course played that bit easier as the rough was not wet which proved much easier to extricate oneself out of trouble. However this proved to be the winning formula as the winner and runner-up of the men’s competition both competed on Friday afternoon.

However the same story did not apply to the Lady Captain’s winner as all the winning scores were posted on Saturday and this was accounted for by the fact that the majority of the ladies played on Saturday.

The winner of Terry Sullivan’s prize was John Thompson with a great score of 42 points and he spreadeagled the field by a wide margin. John added this, his first Captain’s Prize, to last year’s President’s Prize where again he had a comfortable winning margin and his handicap has now been duly adjusted. He had nines of 20 and 22 points respectively and his only blip came on the 18th where he failed to score a point by having a seven and but for that blip he would have posted a record score off the white tees for a Captain’s Prize. As it was he had a gross score of 12 over par, 84, which represented a nett 66 when he adjusted for his handicap allowance. John is a member of the Leinster Fourball team who are pitted against Wexford in the fourth round of the Inter Club Matchplay to be played this week but as he is away on the day he will be sorely missed from the team. The runner-up, who again played on Friday evening was Pat Price Jr. who played very solidly for a score of 38 points. Pat had nines of 18 and 20 points respectively for each nine holes and his only mishap in an otherwise excellent round was on the short 3rd where he found water.

The winner of Brona Reidy’s Prize was Malu Treacy with an excellent score of 38 points and she just got home by a shot from Helen Comerford who stormed home on the back nine with 21 points. Malu had the opposite experience of Helen by having nines of 21 and 17 points respectively whereas Helen did it in reverse order by only scoring 16 points on the first nine holes. Malu is having a very successful time since she took up this game only three years ago and already her handicap has plummeted downwards. The Ladies scores were a much closer affair than that of the men’s as all prizewinners finished within two shots of the winner. All the prizes were presented before a very enjoyable dinner on Saturday night and a very entertainting social evening followed that went on until the early hours of Sunday morning.

Some interesting items on the day were that the visitors’ prizes were won by the visiting Captain of El Paraiso in Spain, Eric Leicester and his wife Pat, who are friends of Terry. The other interesting item was that Terry’s wife, Norma, almost won Brona’s prize.

As reported earlier the Leinster Fourball Team are in action against Wexford this week and this will be reported on in next week’s edition as will the results of the July Ladies Invitation Day which will take place this Wednesday.

Last Wednesday saw the Ladies Invitation Day for May decided over 18 holes singles stableford. On a blustery day, with intermittent showers, the scoring was very good. The winner with a great score of 40 points was Rebecca Nixon and she was two shots clear of her nearest rival Ruth Mulholland who returned a fine score of 38 points off 13 handicap. Rebecca had nines of 18 and 22 points respectively and her only mistake was on the 4th where she scored no points. Ruth just held on to second place by a shot from Sally Gleeson.

The May Monthly Medal was played last Sunday and there were the usual four categories with points being allocated for the Golfer of the Year Competitions as well.
On a day that started off with dull, fine weather the day steadily went downhill with consistent rain for most of the morning and early afternoon. With the tees being well back and pin placings in tight positions scoring proved to be quite difficult. However the three category winners were Conor Spain, Dan Kavanagh and Kieran O’ Malley with Rebecca Nixon capping a fine week by easily winning the Ladies Section. In the Golfer of the Year Competitions Brendan Clarke and Joe Hyland are now tied on 18 points apiece with Dan Kavanagh bringing up third place with 15 points. The Ladies Section has a runaway leader at present with Rebecca Nixon on 24 points which is seven points clear of her nearest pursuers Liz Beatty and Brona Reidy.
On the Inter Club scene the Pierce Purcell Team were in action at St. Helen’s Bay last weekend but they just failed to qualify for the playoffs on Sunday.

The Leinster Fourball Team played against Arklow in Round 2 of this competition and they had a very convincing victory by a margin of three matches to one match with the fifth match called in. In the fifth match Mount Juliet were one up with three to play but were called in as the result of this match did not affect the overall result. The home pairings of Finbar O’ Neill & Pat Hegarty and John Thompson & John Flynn both won by a 4 and 3 margin. Whilst away Tommy Butler & Chris Mc Hugh won the vital match by a margin of 4 and 2, Tim Kavanagh & Arthur Hickey lost on the 16th and Kevin Mc Cartan & Ken MacDonald were the pair called in. This team are now drawn against Rosslare in the third round and hopefully they will keep up the good work. Rosslare are the team to beat as well in the Irish Mixed Foursomes Event as Mount Juliet have also drawn them in the next round of that competition.