Marymount Benefits from Fota Ladies

Fota Island Ladies recently presented a cheque for €3,400 to Marymount Hospice.  The large donation was the proceeds from their annual charity open day which took place a few weeks ago.  Fota Island Lady Captain Caroline Hennessy was delighted with the amount raised: “The semi-open 4 person team event took place in October, we had a great turnout and all proceeds raised on the day went to Marymount Hospice.  This event was very kindly sponsored by Tim Keane of Michel Jewellers.  Michel Jewellers have been sponsoring our October charity day for many years.  Caroline had a great year as Lady Captain, and one of the highlights was the Irish Open: “Hosting the Irish Open in June was a fantastic experience for the members of Fota Island Golf Club, many of our ladies volunteered as marshals and walking scorers.  Fota Island was a beautiful setting for such an important event, we were blessed with beautiful weather, an amazing atmosphere where everyone was able to enjoy superb golf played by some of the world’s top golfers.”  Fota Ladies has been one of the many ladies club to grow their membership of the recent years as Caroline explained: “We currently have 153 lady members, we have had a 10% increase in membership this year. We don’t have any active juniors at the moment but junior membership is available subject to application.  From January we will be getting ready for the Private Home Care Leagues (Inter Club Leagues run by the ILGU).  These leagues cater for every handicap division, so we will be doing our best to feature for 2015.”

It was a busy golfing year for Caroline and her family, her husband Tom was President of the Men’s club so they really got a front row view at the Irish Open.  In addition to stewarding and acting as starter during the tournament, prior to the tournament both Caroline and Tom got to play in the pro-am.  Tom played alongside former winner Paul Casey while Caroline partnered major winner Graeme McDowell, something she has fond memories of: “The Irish Open was a fantastic experience for me personally as Lady Captain, the highlight had to be playing in the pro-am with Graeme Mc Dowell, he now has a life-long fan.  The atmosphere for the four days was magic and particularly on Sunday, it was a great honour to be there for the presentation of the Irish Open Trophy  to the 2014 winner Mikko Ilonen.  And let’s not forget the amazing performance of ‘The Banks’ by the Marshals after the presentation.”