Mount Juliet Golf Notes

Some excellent scoring was returned in the May Monthly Medal last Sunday played in blustery conditions. Gavin Smyth really hit the high spots with the best score of the day of 38 points to win his category. Off his plus one handicap, this represented a gross score of three under par 69 gross. On his outward nine holes, he dropped a shot on the short par three, 3rd hole, but had birdies on the 2nd and 5th for 18 points. On the second nine holes he scored further birdies on the 12th and 17th together with 7 pars for a back nine holes of 20 points.

Category 2 was won with another 38 points and this was returned by Mark Magnier. Mark had nines of 16 and 22 points. He failed to register a score on the 4th and 11th holes but otherwise played very steadily to register an easy win in his category. Bryan Phelan just got home in category 3 with 34 points and won on a countback. The ladies section was won by Geraldine Higgins with 37 points with nines of 16 and 21 points respectively. After a shaky start when Geraldine failed to register a point on the 2nd and 3rd holes, she settled down for the remainder of her round to score a further 35 points. This was just good enough to win the medal on a countback from Myra Phelan who also returned 37 points.

Another three teams exited from the inter club scene and two of them were beaten by neighbours, Callan, who had convincing victories in both the Ladies Intermediate Trophy and the Duggan Cup for men. The ladies team were beaten by a margin of 3½ matches to 1½ matches while the men’s team were beaten by a margin of 4 matches to 1. The third team was the Ladies Challenge Cup team and they were beaten by Rathsallagh Golf Club and this match was played at Mount Wolseley.

Last Wednesday, the May Ladies Invitation Day took place and the competition was a 4 person team event. This competition was won with a fine score of 104 points by a team led by Margaret O’Rourke and the winning team was eight shots clear of their nearest opponents who in turn were a further three shots clear of third place.

May Ladies Invitation Day – Wednesday 8th May 2013

Winners

Margaret O’Rourke (23)
Pauline McEnery (33)
Bridget Mullins (30) (Gowran Park)
Annette Whelan (28) (Kilkenny) 104 points

Second

Aileen Magee (29)
Marcella Kelly (18) (Ashbourne)
Mary Carey (23) (Ashbourne)
Kathleen Gleeson (18) (Roganstown) 96 points

Third

Helen Scully (17)
Margaret McCreery (18) (Kilkenny)
Pauline Dwan (28) (Grange)
Ruth Mulholland (12) 93 points

Results – May Monthly Medal Sunday 12th May 2013

Category 1 Gavin Smyth (+1) 38 points
Category 2 Mark Magnier (15) 38 points
Category 3 Bryan Phelan (18) 34 points
Ladies Geraldine Higgins (33) 37 points

Mount Juliet Golf Notes Monday 4th March 2013

Members of Callan Golf Club were very much to the fore when
some very good scoring was registered last Sunday in the
Member/Guest Fourball Stableford played on a dry but cold day
with a chill wind blowing all day. Early frost delayed the start
to the competition and the best score on the day was 44 points
and this was recorded by two pairings but on a countback Sean
Brett and his partner Brian Duggan from Callan Golf Club emerged
the winners. The winning pair registered a total of four birdies
with three of them coming together on the 5th, 6th and 7th holes
and a further birdie on the 11th completed the quartet of
birdies. Both players contributed two birdies each and had nines
of 22 points to just get the better of Eamon Murphy and Sil
Lester. The runners-up must have regretted failing to register a
score on the long 8th hole as this proved to be the losing of the
competition as they scored 23 points for the other eight holes on
the first nine and then added a further 21 points for last nine
holes. In third place came the Thurles pairing of John Stakelum
and John Nevin with 43 points.

In the Inter Club competitions run under the auspices of the
Golfing Union of Ireland, Mount Juliet have drawn some very
difficult opponents in the 1st round of both the Barton Cup and
Leinster Fourball competitions. In the Barton Cup, the opponents
are Gowran Park and in the Leinster Fourball, Mount Juliet have
drawn Waterford Golf Club with both the opposing clubs having the
home advantage.

Results Member/Guest Stableford Fourball Sunday 3rd March

Winners Sean Brett (8)

Brian Duggan (2) (Callan) 44 points

Second Eamon Murphy (16)

Sil Lester (13) (Callan) 44 points

Third John Stakelum (14)

John Nevin (13) (Thurles) 43 points

The Member/Guest Fourball Stableford competition last Sunday produced some fine scoring by some low handicap players. The winning pair, Hugh O’Connor and Donal O’Sullivan, returned a great 48 points to clinch victory by 2 shots from their nearest rivals. The winning partnership scored 24 points on each nine holes and their combined score of 13 points on the first four holes on the back nine contributed in no small way to their overall victory. Birdies were the order of the day on each of these holes with Hugh scoring three birdies on the 10th, 12th and 13th and Donal adding another birdie on the 11th. The runners-up were the Callan based duo of Sean Brett and Ryan O’Dwyer who returned a fine score of 46 points with nines of 23 points respectively and they in turn were a shot clear of Billy Fanning and Brian Clear.

Last Saturday was busy day on the estate with well over a 1,000 people taking part in the “Run Mount Juliet” event in aid of local charity Cois Nore. The events were run over 3km,10km and Half Marathon and after a drizzly start to the day the event itself was completed in fine dry weather and proved to be huge success for deserving causes. Competitors arrived from early morning and the last of them were seen leaving the estate late in the evening. Some pictures of the event are available on the Mount Juliet Facebook Page.

Next Sunday sees the resumption of the Winter League for members with a Member/Guest Fourball scheduled for Sunday 3rd March. In between dates on 27th February the popular Winter Series for teams of four will take place.

Results Member/Guest Fourball Stableford Sunday 17th February

Winners

Hugh O’Connor (6)

Donal O’Sullivan (13) Milltown G.C. 48 points

Second

Sean Brett (8)

Ryan O’Dwyer (2) Callan G.C. 46 points

Third

Billy Fanning (10)

Brian Clear (11) Carlow G.C. 45 points