Mount Juliet Golf Notes

The final lap of the “Lexus Race to Mount Juliet” was decided last Sunday when Barrie Trainor clinched the title over 36 holes in Mount Juliet. Barrie, who was a former Senior Cup player with his home club, Warrenpoint, had rounds of 68 and 70 for a total of 6 under par to win by four strokes from his playing partner on Sunday, Brendan McGovern and by winning the final he just pipped last year’s winner, David Higgins, for the Order of Merit title as well. Barrie collected €4,000 for winning in Mount Juliet and he collected a further €10,000 for the Order of Merit title.

He beat a select field of his professional compatriots to end his year on top of the pile. This is his sixth year as a professional, having won the Irish Amateur Championship and the PGA Ulster Championship, on the way to the biggest win of his career so far. Both Trainor and McGovern led the field on Saturday after they both had recorded rounds of four under par, 68’s, over the blue championship course. Trainor started his round with eight straight pars on Sunday before he birdied the par four 9th. He dropped two shots on the 11th and 12th before he finished his round with three further birdies on the 13th, 14th and 17th holes for a two under round of 70 shots. In the meantime, McGovern, who lost a ball on the 4th and try as he might could not catch Trainor to finish his round with a 74 which was two over par and this was enough to earn him second place on Sunday. Jimmy Bolger, Kilkenny, finished joint third with David Higgins on Sunday for a good week-end.

The Pro-Am on Friday was contested by 33 teams of four comprising of a professional and three amateur golfers. This event was won by a team led by Old Conna professional, Donal Gleeson, who beat the Jimmy Bolger led team on a countback. Both teams having scored 95 points and were 3 shots clear of the team led by Greenore professional, Robert Giles. The evening concluded with a dinner and presentation of prizes in Kendals Restaurant with some lively and funny entertainment from Barry Murphy of Apres Match fame.

On the amateur scene last week there were two competitions played and the first one was the opening round of the popular Winter Series. This proved to be benefit for some members of Thurles Golf Club as they won the first two prizes. The winners had a great score of 99 points and they had 5 shots to spare from their fellow club members.

The last of the Ladies Invitation Days was held on Wednesday and the format was a Three Person Rumble. This proved to be a successful outing for the team led by Brona Reidy who had a convincing win with 71 points. Brona’s partners were Edel Banim (11) from Woodbrook G.C. and Maeve O’Reilly (12) from Powerscourt G.C.

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Results Winter Series 4 Person Team Event

Winners

Pat Stakelum (18) Thurles G.C.

Pat McEvoy (13)

John Nevin (15)

John McGrath (15) 99points

Second

Jack O’Keeffe (15) Thurles G.C.

V. O’Keeffe (17)

Eamon O’Kennedy (12)

David O’Kennedy (13) 94 points

Results Pro-Am Friday 14th October

Winners

Donal Gleeson, Old Conna

Hugh O’Connor (6)

Helen Hedigan (20)

Geraldine Forde (32) 95 points

Second

Jimmy Bolger, Kilkenny

Bill Connolly (16)

P.J. Butler (15)

Billy Fanning (14) 95 points

Third

Robert Giles, Greenore

Alan Hoyne (7)

Mark Adamson (10)

Gary Stewart (6) 92 points

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.