Mount Juliet Golf Notes

The Ladies Challenge Cup team were in action against Wexford and the venue was Waterford Castle. The overall result was a great win for Mount Juliet by a margin of 3 matches won to 2 matches lost.

Mary Cotter started the winning ball rolling with a convincing victory by a margin of 6 and 5 against her opponent. Then Brenda O’Sullivan kept the winning mood going when she won on the 16th green against her opponent. In between these two victories, Anne Murphy lost her match also on the 16th green and Joan Pierce was having a great battle with her opponent and was one down on the 17th tee. But Wendy Beirne closed out her match with a long putt on the 16th green for a winning margin of 3 and 2. Joan eventually lost on the 17th green but at that stage the important victory was secure. The team now progress to the semi-final on the 25th July against the winners of Woodenbridge or Tara Glen with a neutral venue to be decided. The team is managed by Helen Comerford and is ably assisted by another member of the panel, Dorothy Kilroy, who with Anne Daly completes the full team panel. Hopefully the team can progress to the final for the first time in the history of the club.

The competition for both Golfer of the Year Trophies is hotting up with Alan Hearne just a point in front of Kevin McCartan in the men’s section. In joint third place some seven points adrift of the leader, is John Keane and John Barrett.

The ladies division is led by Sally Gleeson with 41 points and she is five points clear of Amelia Drumm with Liz Beatty some points adrift in third place. This weekend sees the Captains’ Prizes down for decision in both categories and with bonus points on offer in both competitions the Golfers of the Year could easily be decided. A bumper entry will compete for the most coveted prizes of the year with the presentations taking place in Kendals Restaurant after dinner on Saturday night.

The first of five medal competitions for this year were played last Sunday with the running of the March Medal. This competition proved to be a triumph for last year’s Golfer of the Year, Stephen Price, as he returned the best score of the day and duly won his category. Stephen scored a very impressive 43 points, which was one under gross off his handicap of 6. Play was as usual off the white tees and Stephen made the best of the Summer-like conditions to post the winning score.

Stephen started very impressively with a birdie on the 1st hole and followed it with another birdie on the short par three, 3rd , and dropped a shot on the par three, 6th. This was to be his only bogie in the round as he parred all other holes to make a total of 15 pars, 2 birdies and only one bogie. He had nines of 22 and 21 points respectively for his eighteen holes and as a result he leads the Golfer of the Year as this was the commencement of this year’s competition.

In category 2, Alan Hearne also returned a fine score of 41 points to win his category convincingly. Alan had a fine start to his round also with birdies at the 3rd and 4th holes and completed his first nine holes with 23 points. His fine round gradually came to a halt and he returned a steady 18 points on the back nine holes.

Category 3 was won by Padraic O’Connor with 34 points, which could have been a few shots better but for blanking the 1st and 5th holes where he had the unfortunate experience of playing a wrong ball. Also in this category, Frank Kelly had the unusual experience of having an eagle on the 9th when he holed out his second shot with a 5 wood.

The ladies section was won by Liz Beatty with 32 points by virtue of a better back nine holes from three other players and Liz is now the early leader in the G. O.Y.

Next Wednesday, 6th April, sees the first of the popular Ladies Invitation Days for 2011 with the running of a three person scramble.

Results March Monthly Medal

Category 1 Stephen Price (6) 43 points

Category 2 Alan Hearne (13) 41 points

Category 3 Padraic O’Connor (21) 34 points

Ladies Liz Beatty (17) 32 points

The April Monthly Medal was decided last week and this was also the qualifier for the McCalmont Cup Matchplay as well.

As usual there were four categories and on a dry day but with a testing breeze blowing from the southeast scoring was difficult.  Best score of the day came from the ladies section with Liz Beatty scoring 38 points to easily win her section from Lynda Hickey who recorded 35 points.  Tom Duggan had the best score in the men’s section with 36 points just beating John Brennan on a countback.  The other categories were won by David Moore and Dermot Divilly.

The early leaders in the Golfer of the Year categories are Liz Beatty and Dorothy Doyle in the ladies section with 12 points each while the men’s section has another tie with Tom Duggan and Anthony Gore-Grimes locked together on 12 points as well.

The sixteen qualifiers who will contest the McCalmont matchplay are Tom Duggan, Alan Hoyne, Lynda Hickey, David Moore, Dermot Divilly, Gerry Conlon, Ruth Skehan, John O’ Malley, Sally Gleeson, Noel Murphy, Betty Hendrick, Liam Collins, Ruth Mulholland, Kevin McCartan, James J. Brett and Myra Phelan.  The McCalmont Cup matchplay is unique in so far as the ladies and men qualify to play each other in this competition unlike other clubs where the matchplay is confined to each gender.

On the inter club matchplay front the men played Waterford in the Leinster  Fourball and they recorded a fine victory by a margain of 3 matches to 2 and now progress to the third round where their opponents are not known as yet.

The other team, who were to be in action, was the Duggan Cup team whose match against Castlecomer last Saturday had to be postponed due to flooding at Castlecomer and this match will be arranged for later this week.

The ladies played Callan in the Intermediate Cup and duly won while the Minor Cup team went down to The Heritage.  In the Miele All Ireland fourball the home team just got the better of Kilkenny on the 19^th after both teams had drawn.  Ruth Mulholland and Margaret Clandillon getting the vital win.  This team will now play Cahir Park in the next round.  The Intermediate team will play Woodlands in the next round.

Results April Monthly Medal:

Category 1        Tom Duggan (8)          36 points

Category 2        David Moore (14)         34 points

Category 3        Dermot Divilly (21)       34 points

Ladies              Liz Beatty (15)            38 points