Mount Juliet Golf Notes

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

With the advent of the Winter months almost upon us the number of competitions will gradually diminish over the next few months. However, there are some hampers to be taken care of over the next few weeks as well as the members winter series. There was a Member/Guest Singles played last week and this resulted in a convincing win for Sean Brett who was runner-up in the President‘s Prize recently. Sean maintained his good form to register an impressive 41 points with nines of 18 and 23 points respectively. Sean returned a level par score for his back nine holes with bogies on the 10th and 15th holes but he countered these blips by scoring birdies on the 14th and 17th holes. Sean had 2 shots to spare over his nearest competitor, Pat Fitzpatrick, who returned a fine 39 points with nines of 18 and 21 points.

The McCalmont Cup Matchplay for the men was also completed recently and this was a separate competition from the ladies matchplay, who heretofore played against the men in the same competition. Mark Delahunty, playing off 8 handicap, beat Frank Smyth (15) on the 17th by a margin of 2 and 1. Mark playing the steadier golf throughout the round, even though conceding 7 shots to his opponent, ran out the convincing winner.

The Annual Review of handicaps will be undertaken in the next two weeks by the Handicap Committee and forwarded to the Golfing Union of Ireland for ratification. At this time of the year the incoming Captain, Dermot Divilly will be considering his team managers for 2013 for the various competitions. This year it is hoped to include them in the 2013 Fixture Book along with some other relevant information on sub-committees appointed to look after the various competitions.

Next Sunday there is a 16 holes singles members hamper scheduled for completion and the Winter Series will resume on Sunday 11th November. Tee times can be booked on-line or by phoning the golf shop for these competitions.

To herald the arrival of Spring the final rounds of both the Open Winter Series and the Members Winter League concluded last week. The popular Winter Series for teams of four concluded with an 18 holes singles stableford for all the players who qualified over the past few months and this was played last Wednesday in testing conditions off the white tees. The impressive winner was former Limerick hurler, Liam O’ Donoghue, who left the remainder of the field in his wake by returning a very impressive 40 points. Liam had nines of 20 points respectively and would have been an evewn easier winner but for failing to score on the long 18th. Liam was chased home by another clubman, Tom McDarby, some four shots behind on 36 points. In third place came another Munster man, John Nevin, from Thurles G.C. Liam picked up a nice prize of a stay in Mount Juliet House which includes dinner, spa treatment and golf for two people. This concluded the popular series for 2011/12 and will be followed soon by the Summer Series for teams of four.

The other competition which was confined to members and which was concluded last Sunday was the final round of the Winter League. The last round of the competition on Sunday was won by Ted Hoyne with a fine score of 40 points. In second place on 38 points came this year’s captain, Alan Hoyne, who was three shots clear of third placed, Tim Kavanagh, on 35 points. The league proved to be a repeat win for last year’s winner and long time leader Alan Hearn. Alan won the overall from Frank Kelly with this year’s captain Alan Hoyne in third place.

Next Sunday sees the McCalmont Cup match play get underway with the running of the April Monthly Medal and 48 qualifiers will emerge from next Sunday to do battle over the next few months for the trophies. This year the format will be slightly changed as there will be two competitions in the match play event. Thirty two men will qualify for the match play stages and there will be a separate competition for sixteen ladies who also qualify on scores returned. In previous years the ladies and men did battle for the same trophy but because of the keen interest shown, the Committee decided to run a separate competition simultaneously for each category and both of them will carry Golfer of the Year points. This is the second round of the monthly medal competitions and this medal will also carry G. O.Y. points for both the ladies and men. The early leaders in the G.O.Y. are Kevin McCartan and Imelda Drumm.

Results Winter Series Final Wednesday 4th April

Winner: Liam O’ Donoghue (19) Limerick G. C.……….. 40 points.

Second: Tom McDarby (18) Limerick G.C………………   36 points.

Third: John Nevin (14) Thurles G.C……………………….  35 points.