Castlemartyr Breakthrough in Barton

By Niall O’Shea

Castlemartyr announced themselves as contenders for the Barton Shield last weekend when they qualified for the area final on Sunday next.  Castlemartyr were the only team to play in all four rounds, and the beat Cobh in the preliminary round.  They beat hosts Douglas with a comprehensive nine hole winning margin on Saturday afternoon to set up a match with Kinsale on Sunday morning.  Castlemartyr stuck with John O’Brien and Davey Barry in the first pairing and Mark Shanahan & Kieran McCarthy in the second pairing.  They had an impressive seven hole win over Kinsale with both pairings winning their matches.   The fourth round was a testing match against Bandon.  The West Cork side had an impressive win over Fota in the third round and both pairs were playing solidly.  Kieran Hurley was paired with Trevor O’Donoghue while Dwayne Twomey paired off with Darren O’Donoghue.

     

Castlemartyr’s O’Brien and Barry were one down playing the 18^th and won the hole with a birdie to square the match.  The second match was all square on the 18^th tee and Shanahan launched a huge drive straight down the middle of the fairway.  Bandon’s Dwayne Twomey had a similar strike but his drive ended up in the light rough on the left.  Bandon’s second saw them finish around 50 yards short of the green while Castlemartyr’s Kieran McCarthy found the middle of the green with his second.  Bandon struggled with their approach and it took them two shots to get onto the green.  Twomey courteously conceded to hole as Castlemartyr had two putts from 8 feet to win the match.

In the other fourth round match, Muskerry were headed for the 19^th again.  On Sunday morning it took them one extra hole to beat Munster Champions Cork.  Dave O’Donovan and Niall Gorey finished 2 down to Eoghan Murphy and Gary O’Flaherty, and although Daniel Hallissey and John Waldron started the 18^th one up, the pair secured a win on the 18^th green to force the match to the 19^th.  A large crowd from several clubs followed the match up the 1^st and both sides made the green in two.  Cork three putted and Hallissey slotted the par putt to allow Muskerry through to the fourth round.  Mallow’s made it through to Sunday afternoon thanks to wins over Frankfield and Lee Valley, and Ciaran McKenna and Patrick Daly were all square in their top match against Muskerry as they came off the 17^th.  Dave O’Donovan and Niall Gorey birdied 18^th to finish one up.  John Waldron and Daniel Hallissey lost the 18^th and they went on to the 19^th which was halved.  The match was eventually settled on the 20^th when Muskerry’s par was enough to secure the win.  The area final between Muskerrry and Castlemartyr takes place in Douglas in Sunday afternoon.

          

The Mixed area final took place in Cork GC last week, with East Cork facing Bandon.  Both clubs fielded strong teams.  East Cork took control of the game and landed the first thre matches thanks to Jim O’Keeffe & Sel O’Leary, Barry O’Brien & Caroline O’Connor and Kevin Byrne & Phil Sheehan.  They now go on to the Munster finals in Dromoland in August.  The weekend the Irish Junior Cup takes place in Blarney and Monkstown.  Many clubs will be using the Club App to keep members updated in real time.  Last weekend most clubs were running score updates over the Cork based Club App live scoring service.  Over 1,000 users clocked up 5,000 visits and 25,000 page views as members kept up to date with all the golf action.  With over 20 clubs in action this weekend you can expect more clubs to be using the service.