Month: January 2014

Busy Year for Castlemartyr

/ niall@corkgolfnews.com / Leave a comment

Busy Year for Castlemartyr

By Niall O’Shea

Castlemartyr golf course didn’t take long to register itself as one of the most popular courses for green fees and societies and the past few years has seen the club also go from strength to strength.  The club and course are now open almost seven years and the club has seen a large increase in membership over the past two years.  A large number of members attended the recent AGM where John Paul Twomey was elected Captain.  The Kerryman who hails from Duagh in the north of the county has been a popular and hardworking member of the club and takes over the reins from 2013 Captain Gary Quail.  Speaking after the AGM, Twomey is looking forward to the golfing season; “I am looking forward to a busy and exiting year ahead representing the club in 2014.  We have been very active in securing new sponsors and we have a number of key open competitions planned.  We have two Open weekends this year on the May Bank Holiday weekend sponsored by Mahers Golf from 2nd – 4th.  The L’Oreal Open weekend is on the 27th June to the 29th.  Our Junior, Inter and Minor Scratch Cups sponsored by McCarthy Insurance Group are taking place on the August Bank Holiday Weekend.  The Oakley Senior Scratch Cup is scheduled for the 21st September.”

Like most progressive clubs, Castlemartyr has a keen focus on junior golf and this was one of the key areas covered by the Captain at the AGM, “We now have over 30 junior members and we passed a motion at the AGM which will allow junior golfer with a handicap of 16 or lower to compete in men’s competitions.  Our Director of Golf Brady Sherwood and his assistant Alan Gleeson have plans in place for coaching of juveniles for 2014.  We also have a team in the Fred Daly for the first time along with team competing in the Purcell, Bruen, Junior Cup, Senior Cup and Barton Shield.”

The course too is sure to be a busy place and Director of Golf Brady Sherwood celebrated his own heritage by holding an Australian Day open competition on Sunday.  While the weather on Sunday was far from the regular Australian elements, a large number of teams took part.  The winners were Ger Donnelly, Pat Crotty, Brian Murphy and Like Swayne.  They finished with 104 points, six shots clear of second place.  The runners up spot went to Con Murphy, Joey O’Brien, Bill Summers and Shane O’Dwyer.  The weekly open competitions continue to take place with the Tuesday Blues and Wednesday Whites proving popular every week.  Details and timesheets are available from the club.

 

Advertisement

Golf Rules Always to the Fore

/ niall@corkgolfnews.com / Leave a comment

Golf Rules Always to the Fore

By Niall O’Shea

Rory McIlroy hit the headlines over the weekend over his reaction to an incident regarding the rules of golf.  He suffered a two shot penalty for an incorrect drop, a penalty that ultimately had a big bearing on his second place finish.  McIlroy was penalised for standing on the boundary of an obstruction, in this case a spectator crossing point on the fairway.  Local PGA professional Padraig Dooley however had a different take and defended the rules of the game, many of which have endured over time.

Padraig from Drive Golf Performance has taken the PGA Advanced Rules and Refereeing course is well placed to give an opinion on the rules of golf.  He explained: “The requirement to take full relief from an immovable obstruction or abnormal ground conditions is far from stupid.  Both Rules 24 & 25 allow for relief from the conditions if it interferes with not only the ball but the stance and area of intended swing as well.  If there wasn’t a requirement to take full relief, the player by not taking full relief could drop and if not liking the lie could re-drop as many times as required to get a good lie as the player would always be entitled to relief.  This isn’t really a stupid rule.”  McIlroy had commented that “There are a lot of stupid rules in golf and this is one of them”.  While Dooley spends most of his time teaching, his is acutely aware of the importance of the rules and the influence they have in every game “all the rules of golf are well thought out and have a lot of history and cases behind them, none can be called stupid”.

While many golfers think that the Rules of Golf are complex, the Glanimre based teaching professional doesn’t agree; “A very good working knowledge of the rules doesn’t take too long to grasp.  There are 34 rules, it might take 15 minutes to get reacquainted with each of them.  An hour each evening in the winter months will mean it just takes over a week to get a great deal of the knowledge that will help every player.”  It should also be noted that the Rules of Golf booklet can be downloaded for free from the R&A website.

Working from their own extensive facility in Riverstown, Padraig and his brother John have built a large customer base in under two years.  In addition to lessons, also offer junior lessons, custom fitting and golf fitness programmes.  Padraig is a qualified junior golf and golf fitness coach, both qualifications coming from the renouned Titleist Performance Institute.  Padraig’s final bit of advice is “Why not grab a rule book while watching the TV and during the ad breaks, read a rule, you never know when it might save you a stroke or two.”