Mount Juliet Golf Notes

Tony Sparkles in Monthly Medal

The July Monthly Medal was played for last Sunday and competitors were lucky with the weather, as almost an inch of rain had fallen in the previous 24 hours, but Sunday remained nice and dry for a good turnout of golfers.

Best score of the day was recorded by Tony Frew who scored a very impressive 44 points which equated to a round of level par off his handicap of 8. Tony had nines of 22 points on each nine holes with bogies on the 7th and 14th holes, but he countered these dropped shots with birdies on the 2nd and 10th holes. He had no other dropped shots but completed his round with 14 pars for a very fine score indeed. Tony easily won his category and was an impressive six shots clear of his nearest rival.

In category 2, Alan Hearne just beat the present Captain, Jim Cusack, on a countback to claim the spoils with another fine round of 40 points. Alan had a rather sluggish start to his round by only recording 11 points for his first seven holes which included two double bogies and four bogies, but he really came to life from thereon as he scored 29 points for the last eleven holes and only dropping two shots to par on the 14th and 18th holes.

Category 3 was won by Paul Carty, who is having a very successful year on the golf course. Paul recorded 32 points for his round.

The ladies division also had a decisive winner in Margaret Clandillon who had three shots to spare from her nearest rivals. Margaret scored a fine 38 points with nines of 20 and 18 points respectively and had only one blip in her round, on the 16th where she failed to register a point. Margaret had three shots to spare from Paula Moore and Lady Captain, Sally Gleeson.

In the Golfer of the Year competitions, Stephen Price leads Alan Hearne with Andrew Nixon holding third place. Ruth Skehan holds sway over Amelia Drumm by four points. Ruth has scored in six competitions whereas Amelia holds a slight advantage by only scoring in five competitions, and can overtake her rival over the next few weeks. The C.S.S. for the men was 36 points and for the ladies was 37 points.

Last week also saw the running of the July Ladies Invitation competition and this proved to be a triumph for Ursula Mason who returned the winning score. The competition for July was an 18 holes singles stableford and Ursula hit top form by scoring 39 points and won by a shot from Brenda O’Sullivan with Sheila MacDonald a shot further behind. Ursula had nines of 21 and 18 points respectively and after a shaky start to her second nine holes, where she only scored two points in total on the 10th and 11th holes, she settled down again to record an impressive win. Brenda had a very indifferent start to her round by scoring 16 points on the first nine holes but came to life on the second nine by scoring a further 22 points.

The popular Summer Series continued last Thursday and the July competition proved to be a triumph for a team led by two New Ross members who returned the winning score of 90 points. They just held on by a shot from a team led by Stephen Price and three friends based in Dublin clubs. The next round in this series will continue in August with a similar four person team event.

The Friday evening competition, which is a social occasion for members and their guests, continues over the next few months and the next competition in the Member/Guest series will be on Sunday 25th July and this will be a Mixed Scotch Foursomes over 18 holes.

RESULTS

Ladies Invitation Day, 7th July 2010

Winner Ursula Mason (30) 39 points

Second Brenda O’Sullivan (33) 38 points

Third Sheila MacDonald (30) 37 points

First Nine Ruth Skehan (27) 19 points

Second Nine Helen Comerford (20) 21 points

Summer Series, 8th July 2010

Winners

Richard Murphy (14) (New Ross)

P.J. O’Connor (7) (New Ross)

James Nelson (20) (Corrstown)

Michael Murphy (14) (San Jose) 90 points

Runners Up

Stephen Price (7) (Mount Juliet)

Darren Kelly (18) (Malahide)

Ciaran Maher (20) (Balcarrick)

Brendan Feeney (7) (Balcarrick) 89 points

July Monthly Medal, 11th July 2010

Category 1 Tony Frew (8) 44 points

Category 2 Alan Hearn (15) 40 points

Category 3 Paul Carty (19) 32 points

Ladies Margaret Clandillon (26) 38 points

The Ladies Invitation Day for June took place last Wednesday and with the weatherman smiling kindly on all participants, a good day was had by all competitors. Scoring was very close with only a shot separating the three prizewinning partnerships. The format was a fourball betterball stableford with the winners returning a score of 38 points. Sandra Carr and her partner Pauline Ann Murray just got the better of the pairing of Lady Captain, Sally Gleeson, and her partner Jeanie Ronan who in turn beat Brenda O’Sullivan and her partner Pauline McEnery on a countback.

In the McCalmont Cup Matchplay, the competition has reached the quarter-final stage. Match pairings are as follows; Kathyrn O’Connor v Paul Barrett, Michael Brennan v Pat Price Jr., Helen Scully v John O’ Connor, Chris McHugh v Ruth Skehan with all four matches to be played by the 30th June.

Next Sunday sees the J. B. Carr Trophy down for decision with sections for both the ladies and men with Golfer of the Year points on offer to both sections. Preparations are in full flow for the Captains Prizes which will take place on Saturday 26th June. A limited number of tee times will be available on the Friday evening prior to the event for Juniors and to accommodate members who cannot play on the Saturday.

Results June Ladies Invitation Day

The next round in the popular Summer Series for teams of four competitors takes place on Wednesday 16th June and reservations can be made by phoning the golf shop or golf reservations at 056/7773071 or 7773064.

Mount Juliet have introduced a new Summer offer to players who wish to visit “a little bit of heaven“ for a day of recreation.

For €90 (Sunday-Thursday) and €100 (Friday and Saturday), interested golfers can avail of:

- a basket of range golf balls
- a round on the unique 18 hole putting course designed by Jeff Howes
- a snack on the 10th tee
- 18 holes of golf on the Jack Nicklaus designed championship golf course

Next Sunday sees the April Monthly Medal down for decision and the top 16 players will qualify for the McCalmont Cup Matchplay. This competition is unique to the club as the ladies and men are eligible to compete against each other in the match play rounds. There will also be points available for Golfer of the Year in both the ladies and men’s sections of the medal as well as the winner and runner-up of the match play.

Last weekend saw two more teams in action in the inter club competitions. The first team in action was the Barton Cup team and they were pitted against Kilkenny. Unfortunately for Mount Juliet, Kilkenny had a convincing victory winning by an overall margin of 4 ½ to ½. Kilkenny won all three matches at home and then proceeded to win another at Mount Juliet with the final match halved on the 18th. Two of the matches at Kilkenny went to the 17th with the other match finishing at the 16th.

The ladies team played Waterford Castle at Callan in the Challenge Cup and I am pleased to report that Mount Juliet had a convincing victory by winning the first three matches and the other two matches were called in. The first three winners were Anne Daly, Anne Murphy and Ruth Skehan with Wendy Beirne and Mary Cotter called in as the overall result could not be altered. Because of new conditions laid out by the I.L.G.U., all matches must now be played at neutral venues hence the match having to be played at Callan Golf Club. This was a nice start to the ladies campaign and hopefully they can go a lot further in this competition as they appear to have a strong team managed by Myra Phelan. In the next round they play Bunclody at Rathsallagh Golf Club.

The club took part in the annual outing for the Irish Association of Golf Club Secretary’s Trophy at Ballybunion last Monday. The team comprises of the Captain, Greenkeeper, Professional and Secretary and this year were represented by Jim Cusack, Robbie Anderson, Sean Cotter and Sean O’Neill. The team finished a creditable fourth out of a total of over twenty teams representing clubs from all over Ireland.