Mount Juliet Golf Notes

The Summer Series played last week proved to be a triumph for four golfers from Newbridge Golf Club as they swept to victory in a very decisive manner returning a fine score of 97 points.  They had seven points to spare from their nearest rival competitors who all hailed from Tipperary.  The Newbridge team were consistent throughout their round with nines of 48 and 49 points respectively.  The next and final round in the series will take place on Wednesday 21st September and already the timesheet for this is filling up at this point, almost four weeks out.

Last Sunday, a Member/Guest competition took place and this was won in emphatic style by Pat Doyle and his guests from the Ring of Kerry Golf Club who obviously thought it unnecessary to cheer on their football team in Croke Park.  This competition proved to be a landmark for Pat as well as he scored three birdies on three of the four par 3’s.  Pat registered birdies on the 3rd, 6th and 11th holes as part of his team’s winning score of 86 points.  The format of the competition was a three person rumble and Pat’s team scored 20 points, 32 points and 34 points for each six holes. With a fine entry of 30 teams in the competition Pat’s team had 3 points to spare from his nearest rival teams led by Sean O‘Neill and Jim Cusack.

The final stages of the McCalmont Cup are drawing to a conclusion with Amelia Drumm waiting to play the winners of the match between Ruth Mulholland and Jeff Howes.  This competition could yet end up as an all ladies affair for the first time in its history.  Amelia is having such a good year as she is almost assured of the Golfer of the Year title as well as possible victory in the cup.  The men’s competition in the Golfer of the Year is still up for grabs but it looks now like a straight fight between Alan Hearne and John Keane with Alan holding the upper hand with only two ranking competitions to go.

The President’s (Des Fitzgerald) Prize takes place on Saturday 10th September with a shot-gun start at 12 noon and the timesheet for this “major” opens on Monday 29th August.  Presentation of prizes will take place after play and this will be followed by dinner in Kendals Restaurant.

The J. B. Carr Trophy, which was played for last Sunday, proved to be a triumph for the ladies of Mount Juliet with the best three scores of the day registered by the lady members. Pride of place went to Helen Scully who returned a great score of 38 stableford points for the 18 holes. Helen scored 18 and 20 points respectively for each nine holes and just got home from the lady in form, Sally Gleeson, who scored 37 points who in turn just pipped Mary Divilly for second prize on a countback.

On a difficult day for scoring, with some wind and rain to contend with, the men were not able to reach the target of 37 points set by the ladies and their best score returned was 36 points. This was scored by Stephen Skehan with nines of 20 and 16 points respectively. He had a shot to spare over Pat Garvey who in turn had a shot to spare over Alan Hearne.

The trophy, which was presented by the Carr family to commemorate their illustrious father who was president of the club for a number of years, is a replica of the West of Ireland silver salver which the great golfer won many years ago. This trophy will be held by the winner, Helen, for the next 12 months. She had only one real mistake on her card and this was on the long par four, 4th, where she failed to register a point. Mary Divilly had the distinction of scoring an eagle two on the long ninth when she holed out her second shot with a 5 wood and scored 6 points which contributed to her overall score as a result.

The first round of the McCalmont Cup match play has been completed and the eight players through to the quarter finals are Michael Brennan, Alan Hearne, Amelia Drumm, Sandra Carr, Jeff Howes, Paul Barrett, Kevin McCartan and Ruth Mulholland. The quarter finals have to be completed by the end of June.

Members are reminded that the nine hole singles stableford competition continues each Friday evening from 5pm onwards and the player with the best 7 cards returned by the end of September will be declared the winner. There will also be prizes for the runner-up and third overall as well.

Results J. B. Carr Trophy

Overall Winner Helen Scully (18) 38 points

Men

Winner Stephen Skehan (18) 36 points

Second Pat Garvey (12) 35 points

Third Alan Hearne (11) 34 points

First Nine Dave Wyer (12) 18 points

Second Nine Tim Kavanagh (16) 18 points

Ladies

Winner Sally Gleeson (12) 37 points (last nine)

Second Mary Divilly (25) 37 points

The course closes this week for annual maintenance up to and including this Wednesday and as the Summer comes to a close, there was some interesting golf played last week. The final of the McCalmont Cup matchplay between Michael Brennan and John O’Connor was played last Friday. After a very close match in which fortunes for both players ebbed and flowed, Michael came out victorious on the 18th by a one hole victory. Michael was giving John six shots in the match over the eighteen holes and the result looked ominous for him after 16 holes as they were all square with John to receive a further two shots on the 16th and 18th holes. However, Michael managed to half the 16th and win the 17th and held on for a half and the match on the 18th.

This is Michael’s second time to win the trophy since its inception and congratulations go to him on the achievement. As this was a Golfer of the Year competition, the result had no significant bearing on the leaderboard.

Stephen Price still maintains his lead, but only just, from Alan Hearn by one point. The advantage still rests with Stephen as he has fewer competitions played but it still looks as this will go to the wire before a result is known.

In the ladies section the competition is hotting up with Ruth Skehan holding a narrow advantage over Amelia Drumm with Kathryn O’Connor reducing the gap on the leaders in third place.

The President’s (Des Fitzgerald) Prize will be played on Saturday 4th September with a shotgun start at 11am. The timesheet for this competition is now open and bookings can be made by phoning tee reservations at 056 7773071or 7773064.

Last Sunday there was an 18 holes 3 person rumble competition and there was a very good turnout of members and their guests for this popular competition. With one score to count on the first six holes, two scores on the next six holes and all three players scores to count on the last six holes, competitors had to be at their sharpest. The winners had 18 points for the first six holes, followed by 29 points for their middle six holes and they finished off with a further 45 points to register a total of 91 points. They had eight shots to spare from their nearest rivals. The key to their success was that they all scored on each hole for the last six holes and this is where the competition is usually decided.

Results

Member/Guest 18 holes Rumble Sunday 22nd August