Mount Juliet Golf Notes

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.

This Thursday the last round of the Winter Series takes place and this will finalise the line-up for the Grand Final which takes place on Thursday 1st April. The final will be an 18 holes singles stableford from the white and red markers with the winner receiving the perpetual trophy and prize. All participants will receive a prize for qualifying for the final. There are a few spaces still left for intending players this week and competitors should phone the golf shop without delay to reserve a tee time. With the final such a short time away it will herald the end, I hope, of a long winter for all golfers who did not enjoy too much participation of their favourite sport over the past number of months. All qualifiers for the grand final will be advised of their respective tee times after Thursday’s qualifying round.

Next Sunday sees the first of the Monthly Medals down for decision. This, competition, as usual, will be an 18 holes singles stable ford with three categories in order of handicaps for the men and a separate ladies category. It is the first round in the Golfer of the Year competition for ladies and men and is confined to members. Tee times again may be booked by phoning the golf shop or on line for those wishing to play.

Is it ever going to stop freezing or will golf courses recover from the prolonged months of continuous sub zero temperatures. Like every other course Mount Juliet has had to endure its fair share of Artic weather and it now has the not so envious reputation of holding the record for this Winter of having the coldest recorded temperature in Ireland when on 7th January the gauge dipped to – 16.3 degrees.

The Winter Series got off the ground last Thursday after a three hour frost delay when the competition reverted to a shotgun start at 1pm. A Tipperary team comprising of four Clonmel members, ably led by Trevor Gough from Coolmore Stud, led the qualifiers with a good score of 90 points. The winners had nines of 47 and 43 points respectively and just held on by a point from another Munster dominated team who finished on 89 points.

Things looked rosy for the Clonmel contingent until they reached the 16th hole and here they could only muster 2 points between all four players. Again they had a rather shaky finish as they could only muster 4 points on the 18th where three scores could count. The runners-up also had cause to rue their finish as they could only scramble 2 points on the 15th and they scored 47 and 42 points respectively for both nines. But at the end of the day it was the Clonmel who qualified for the final in three weeks time.