Muskerry’s Ronan Twomey won the first major competition of the year when he scooped the TopGolfer Senior Scratch Cup at Fota Island on Sunday.  The full timesheet featured almost 120 gofers as they all took to the famous Irish Open Deerpark course.  The course was in great condition although it was a bitterly cold morning.  The scoring was going to be tough for the high class field.  The championship tees were in play and the greens offered up some very tricky pins.  No golfer managed to break par or even match it, and only two golfers posted a one over 73.  Twomey was matched on 72 by Mallow’s Paul McCarthy and it took a countback on the back three to separate the two.  Alan Thomas and Peter Sheehan were next best on 73.  This was the first event on the 2015 Top Golfer schedule, and a large number of prizes were on offer from the tour partners, Motocaddy, Callaway, Oakley, Jointace, Golfbuddy and ECCO.  The TopGolfer tour returns to Cork in July for the Cork Golf Club Junior Scratch Cup.  The tour has been running for several years and is limited to golfers with a handicap of nine or lower.  The tour features over 37 scratch cups all over the country with several taking place in Munster.  Twomey will be hoping his form can continue as his club Muskerry hold their Senior Scratch Cup on Saturday 18^th of April.  After that it’s the Lee Valley Senior Scratch Cup and then it’s on to Cork as they host the Munster Strokeplay Championship on the May Bank Holiday weekend.  The prestigious 72 hole event is sure to attract the top category one golfers from around the country.  Fota are holding a Kid’s Golf Camp at Easter.  It runs over three days from Wednesday 8^th April to Friday 10^th April from 10am to 1pm.  The cost is €75 and it’s aimed at children aged 7-14 years.

Entries for the Munster Youths Championship have closed and a very strong field will head for Tralee in three weeks’ time.  Kinsale’s Cathal Butler leads a strong Cork challenge which also includes Kieran Lynch (Skibbereen, Rory Dineen (Cork), Greg Barrett (Lee Valley), Paul Tobin (Cork) and Cillian Moloney (Fota Island). Several Cork golfers are also heading for Sligo that week for the West of Ireland Championship in Rosses Point.  Keith Crowley, Ian O’Rourke, Seanie Barry, Edwin Hannon, John Hickey, Mark Shanahan and Ian Spillane have all made the first round while sever spaces have been reserved for the strokeplay qualifiers.

Fota Island Senior Scratch Cup Results: