Mount Juliet Golf Notes

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

Two competitions were completed in the past week, the penultimate round of the Winter Series for 2010/2011 and the popular Member/Guest competition. The Winter Series proved to be a triumph for Co. Galway, who seem to have a hoodoo on Kilkenny on the playing fields at the moment, as a team from Ballinasloe Golf Club literally ran away with this event. They scored an impressive 99 points with scores of 53 and 46 points respectively for each nine holes. The aggregate score for the first nine holes was almost 6 points per hole which was indeed an impressive tally.

In the Member/Guest competition, the format of which was a fourball betterball stableford, the father/son combination of James E. and Niall Brett ran out deserving winners with a score of 43 points. They had a shot to spare over Frank Kelly and his Kerry based partner Joe Healy. The winners had nines of 20 and 23 points respectively and a par on the 18th by James proved to be the clinching score.

The final round of the Winter Series takes place next Wednesday 30th March and as usual it is for teams of four golfers, any combination, with two scores to count. Next Sunday sees the commencement of the Golfer of the Year competition with the running of the March Medal over 18 holes and play will be off the white tees. Last year’s winner, Stephen Price, will be out to retain his crown. On the inter club scene the first team in action will be the Fourball Trophy team and they are pitted against Athy Golf Club who are expected to be formidable opposition. The month of April will see the majority of teams in action, both ladies and gents, hopefully with success.

Results Winter Series

Winners

R. Fitzgerald (11) (Ballinasloe)

T. Kelly (14) (Ballinasloe)

N. Egan (20) (Ballinasloe)

E. Moloney (18) (Ballinasloe) 99 points

Member / Guest Fourball Stableford

Winners

James E. Brett (14)

Niall Brett (10) (Callan) 43 points

Second

Frank Kelly (23)

Joe Healy (10) (Dooks) 42 points

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