Month: February 2016

Higgins wins Munster PGA event in Castlemartyr

/ niall@corkgolfnews.com
Munster PGA_Winter Series 2016_David Higgins

Munster PGA Captain David O’Sullivan presenting David Higgins with first prize after the Munster PGA event in Castlemartyr on Monday.

David Higgins (Waterville) was the only golfer to break 70 at the Munster PGA Winter Series event in Castlemartyr today.  The Kerryman won his first event of the 15/16 series and is now in with a strong shout for the order or merit title with events in Waterville and Monkstown left on the schedule.

David recorded birdies on the 3rd and 4th holes on the front nine and the 1 Continue reading →

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Munster PGA Season gets back on track

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The Munster PGA will finally get their Winter Series back on track next week when they play in Castlemartyr.  Monday next will see only the third event of the weather affected season.  David Ryan won the opening event in Fota in November and Cian McNamara won last month in Adare Golf Club.  Wayne O’Callaghan was the winner last year in Castlemartyr, he shot a six under par 66 to win by one shot from John McHenry and Daniel Sugrue.  A large turn-out is expected as the 2016 half of the season eventually starts.  There are only two further events planned in the shortened season, Waterville will host the William Rushby Pro-Am next Month and the annual Morgan O’Donovan Perpetual Trophy will round off the PGB Winter Series in early April.

Golf_PGA Ireland_Danny Sugrue_Aug 2014

Danny Sugrue

Charlevile PGA Professional Frank Holly finished up in Charleville last week, marking an end of the “new” old guard at the north Cork club.  Frank had worked with Jamie O’Sullivan for several years, and now both have departed.  Holly is headed for North Carolina shortly and Monday’s Munster PGA event in Castlemartyr could be his last of the season.  Holly will have happy memories from Castlemartyr, he recorded his first competitive hole in one on the 12th hole during last year’s event.  Mark Collins was recently appointed Head Professional in Charleville, moving from Adare Golf Club.  Dooks made another addition to their staff when they announced this week that Killarney Professional Daniel Sugrue is joining the popular south-west Kerry club.  The club is a summer favourite for many Cork golfers and over the past decade the club invested heavily in developing the course and also the clubhouse.  In the off-season they announced that Maurice O’Meara was taking over the role of General Manager.  O’Meara has extensive experience in the top end of the Irish golf market.  Prior to Dooks he was Secretary/Manager of the Island Golf Club and prior to that he spent a successful term at Killarney Golf Club.  During his time at Killarney he played a key role in Killarney’s hosting of the Irish Open in 2010 and 2011.  Sugrue joins Dooks from his position as a PGA Professional attached to Killarney Golf Club.  Danny has been a prolific winner on the PGA Irish Region tour and is a two time winner of the Munster PGA Order of Merit.  He qualified for the Irish Open in 2014 at Fota Island and Sugrue will be a great addition to the Glenbeigh club.

Irish Junior Foursomes 2016

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Good Friday, 25th March will see the staging of the first round of the Irish Junior Foursomes.  There are 21 Cork clubs taking part in three host venues.  Cobh, Fermoy and Macroom all host qualifiers with two clubs at each venue qualifying for a matchplay final.  Tee times vary, check with host club.

Irish Junior Foursomes 1st Round 2016

Round 1 QUALIFYING ROUNDS FOURSOMES STROKE PLAY – reducing to 16 Teams
Round 2 TWO TEAMS QUALIFY FROM EACH VENUE FOR MATCH PLAY AT NEUTRAL VENUE TO BE ARRANGED BY TEAMS AND PLAYED BEFORE 24th April, with office notified of result by Sunday 24th at 9.00pm
Round 3 MATCH PLAY WEEKEND OF 28/29 May VENUES will be the Pierce Purcell Venues
Munster Semi Finals & Final – 5 August Newcastle West GC

Charleville are hosts for their North Munster qualifier while Youghal travel to Gold Coast for their East Munster qualifier.

 

New Governance Structure for GUI

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The Golfing Union of Ireland is pushing ahead with changes in its structures and governance.  Following the appointment of the governing body’s first CEO last year, the Union recently approved series of major constitutional changes. The revised GUI Constitution paves the way for the creation of an 11-Member Board of the GUI, which will replace the current Executive Committee.

“The introduction of a board, with Continue reading →

Big Entry expected for Muskerry Junior Scratch Trophy

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AIG Junior Cup Munster Finals

2015 Winner Adam McSweeeny

The timesheet for the Ford Muskerry Junior Scratch Trophy qualifiers has opened and a full entry is expected for the unique event.  The top 64 qualifiers from the two day qualifier will go forward to the matchplay phase where the eventual winner will come through six rounds of matchplay golf.  The six rounds are played over three days, giving the successful qualifiers a taste of tournament golf that’s normally reserved for scratch golfers.  The competition has been running since 1970 and the trophy has some well-known local names including Donal O’Donovan, Kieran McCarthy, Mark Ford and Eoghan O’Connell.  Muskerry winners include Niall Turner, Donal Healy, John O’Mahony and two-time winner Ger O’Shea.  Last year’s winner was Adam McSweeney from Douglas.  McSweeney was a member of the successful Douglas Junior Scratch Cup team but he’s now too low to enter the competition this year.  Already there are over 150 golfers registered for the qualifiers which take Continue reading →

Turner ready for Maybank, O’Driscoll on learning curve

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Niall Turner has recovered from illness and is ready for his fourth event of the Asian Tour as he tee’s it up in Malaysia tomorrow.  The Waterfall man narrowly made the cut in Bangladesh last weekend, having to wait until the second round was complete to see if he’s be playing for the weekend.  Despite making the cut, he was forced to retire before the start of the third round due to illness.

Niall Turner Malaysia

Niall Turner pictured on the 1st tee in Royal Selangor GC in Kuala Lumpur, picture Kenneth Quillinan

Turner has made the journey south to Kuala Lumpur for the Maybank Championship Malaysia.  This is Niall’s first event of the season which is co-sanctioned Continue reading →

Weather Continues to Disrupt Golfing Plans

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Course ClosedThe last nine weeks have been challenging for Cork’s golfing community, to borrow a phrase from Muskerry, it started with Abigail and continues with Imogen.  The past two months have been unprecedented in terms of the disruption caused by the weather.  While a bit of frost and even snow might be expected, the volumes of rainfall have effectively shut down the business of golf across the county and beyond.  While course and clubhouse damage has been minimal, the disruption has been severe.  Courses, bars and restaurants and pro-shops have all been affected, with courses in particular seeing footfall drop to close to zero since November.  Muskerry is a case in point, the ladies club has completed just one competition since November with eight consecutive cancellations since the start of December.  The Men’s club in Muskerry hasn’t fared much better with seventeen competitions cancelled since November.  It’s not all bad news however as the club has succeeded in growing it’s Continue reading →

Quillinan’s Muskerry Heritage Uncovered

/ niall@corkgolfnews.com

Everyone know’s that current Asian Tour member Niall Turner is a Muskerry man, and most will know that his Dad Pat is also a Muskerry man.  However not a lot of people will know that Niall’s current caddie also has a strong Muskerry heritage.

Niall Turner Singapore KQTralee Man Kenneth Quillinan is currently on the bag for Turner.  Kenneth is a university lecturer in Korea and is spending his summer holidays keeping the Cork man company as he travels across Asia in the opening weeks of the 2016 Asian Tour.  Quillinan is also a freelance golf writer and his golfing pedigree traces back to Cork in the middle of the last centuary.  Ken’s grandfather was the Captain in Muskerry Golf Club in 1951. Not only that, Ken’s Grandmother on Continue reading →

Ward wins with Maynooth

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Kinsale’s Gary Ward was part of the Maynooth team that won the team competition at the Irish Colleges Strokeplay Championship.  Bad weather and a worse forecast meant that there was no play in Strandhill today, so the results from yesterday’s first round stood and Maynooth (B) won the title by five strokes.  Ward, who is currently studying product design and innovation in Maynooth, was joined by Sean Walsh, Colin Woodroofe and Jack McDonnell and the four of them secured another title for Maynooth.

As a result there was no change to the individual standings with Jonathan Yates winning thanks to a very impressive 71 yesterday.  Adam McSweeney (CIT) and Greg O’Mahony (UCC) were the best placed Cork players, both were tied in 10th place.

Irish Colleges Strokeplay Championship – Day 1 Report