Mount Juliet Golf Notes

Last week there was a bag of mixed luck on the Inter Club front with two ladies teams in action. The Challenge Cup team were pitted against Kilkenny Golf Club at the neutral venue of Callan and they came out on top by a margin of 3½ matches to 1½ matches. The format of the competition was 5 singles and Mary Cotter, Ann Murphy and Wendy Beirne all won their respective matches with Dorothy Kilroy securing a half in her match. While on the course. Brenda O’Sullivan lost narrowly to her opponent.

The All Ireland Fourball team lost narrowly to the ladies of Carrick-on-Suir Golf Club but only on a countback. In this competition two pairs play at home and two pairs play away. While our two home pairs achieved victory, the away players lost and on a countback of holes won and lost, Mount Juliet came out on the wrong end. The pairings were Helen Scully/Ruth Skehan and Helen Hedigan/Mary Fulton, both of these pairings played at Mount Juliet. At Carrick-on-Suir, the pairings were Sally Gleeson/Jon Hegarty and Myra Phelan/Rita Garvey. It is interesting to note that Helen and Ruth were 5 down after nine holes but recovered for a great victory on the 18th.

Next Sunday sees the running of the J.B. Carr Trophy in memory of our former illustrious President Joe, and this is a Golfer of the Year competition with extra points available.

On Tuesday next the open Summer Series for teams of four players continues and reservations for tee times can be made by phoning 056 7773071.

Last Sunday saw the closure of all serious golf for 2010 with the last of the medal competitions decided and this competition also heralded the final round in the Golfer of the Year for both the ladies and men. In the medal competition itself, the best score of the day was returned by six handicapper, Alan Hoyne, who hit a run of form to score 40 points. This won him first prize in his category and the other categories were won by David Gleeson and Christian McManus. The ladies section was won by Ruth Skehan who beat her rival in the Golfer of the Year competition, Amelia Drumm, by one shot. Unfortunately for Ruth it was not sufficient to haul back long time leader, Amelia, in the G.O.Y. competition.

Alan scored 20 points on each nine holes and but for a blank on the tricky par four, 7th, he would have added to his total score. Against that he birdied the 2nd and 5th on his outward nine and returned a highly creditable one over par gross, 37 shots, on his homeward nine holes which included a hole out for a par on the last from the greenside bunker. David Gleeson returned 37 points to win category 2 and he did this the hard way by scoring only 15 points for his first nine holes and then came to life by scoring a further 22 points on his last nine. In category 3 Christian McManus just pipped Gerard Magee to win the medal and Gerard who turned with 22 points could only add a further 11 points on the last nine holes.

In the ladies section Ruth scored 35 points and just got home from Amelia, who looked to have the medal well within her grasp after 11 holes when she had scored 24 points. But incredibly she failed to score on the 12th, 13th and 14th holes where she visited bunkers. But to her credit she regained her composure and scored a further 10 points on the last four holes. Ruth, after an indifferent start, had nines of 15 and 20 points to secure her medal.

In the Golfer of the Year competitions Stephen Price won the men’s section for the third time from Michael Brennan and Alan Hearne. Michael had a great chance of winning as he had scored 20 points after nine holes but ran into plenty of trouble on the last nine holes and only scored a further 12 points when 15 points would have won the trophy for him.

Amelia won the ladies trophy by virtue of her amazing run of wins in the March, April and May medals and this foundation was the key to her triumph. Congratulations to both winners and the trophies will be presented at the annual dinner on Saturday week. This will be followed on Sunday by a competition between the Captain’s Team and the Lady Captain’s Team

Results September Monthly Medal

Bryan makes it to 45 ?

The much coveted Residential Trophy was the prize last Saturday and Bryan Phelan made a procession of the competition by returning a fabulous 45 points off the green markers to spreadeagle a good field of both ladies and men for this special event in Mount Juliet. Bryan had nines of 23 and 22 points respectively for his round which was comprised of 11 pars, 5 bogies and two double bogies. He dropped shots on the 8th, 9th, 10th 11th and 12th and had a double bogie on the 7th and finished with another on the 18th hole. But he had set up his score by starting with six pars and after his lapse in the next six holes he steadied himself again by scoring a further five pars before a final lapse on the last hole. In second place was Cliff Beirne with 41 points and he scored 22 and 19 points for his respective nine holes. Normally his score would have been good enough to win this annual competition but Bryan obviously had other ideas. In third place scoring 37 points came Conor Lynch. The ladies section was won by lady in form, Ruth Skehan, returning a score of 34 points with 17 points on each nine holes. The best junior was Flora Stevenson who returned an impressive 38 points. Flora scored 19 points for each nine holes played. The C.S.S. for both the ladies and men’s sections was 36 points, which meant a number of handicap reductions for a select group of players.
The finalists in the McCalmont Cup match play competition are now known with victories in both semi-finals having been achieved by Michael Brennan and John O’Connor. Michael Brennan beat Kathyrn O’Connor and John O’Connor got the better of Chris McHugh. Both players will do battle in the final at a date to be agreed in the coming weeks.

Next week sees the “Vice Versa” competitions take place on Sunday 15th August. These are the Lady Captain’s Prize to Men and the Captain’s Prize to Ladies with a shotgun start at 11am for all participants.

Results of Residential Trophy
Winner Bryan Phelan (18) 45 points
Second Cliff Beirne (10) 41 points
Third Conor Lynch (14) 37 points
Ladies Ruth Skehan (27) 34 points
Junior Flora Stevenson (36) 38 points