Month: August 2016

Inaugural Muskerry Bruen Week a Huge Success

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Sean Desmond Bruen Youths 2016

Bruen Youths winner Sean Desmond pictured with President Maura Minogue, Richard Cahill Sponsor, David Bruen and Captain Tom Purcell Pic: Mike English

Muskerry held a very successful open week last week, it was the first staging of the Jimmy Bruen Open week and marked the culmination of a number of initiatives to remember the greatest amateur golfer from Cork.

Maurice Leahy was one of the driving forces behind the Jimmy Bruen Open Week and he was delighted with the week’s activities.  “I am pleased to say the week was a roaring success” said Leahy, “We had packed time sheets, decent weather and huge input from the Bruen Family.  The week culminated in a barbecue on Saturday night, and specially commissioned medals were presented to the week’s winners by members of the Bruen Family.   The night began with a Jimmy Bruen life and times slideshow produced by Tim O’Brien.  This was attended by Mrs Nell Bruen, a sprightly 98 yrs young, and Bruen family.   Nell thanked everyone and Captain Tom Purcell presented Nell with one of the medals as a momento.  Then Barbara Bruen presented the club with a Gross score trophy won by her father Jimmy at the 1938 Irish Amateur Continue reading →

Super 65 from Dooley, PGA Southern Championship Pro-Am

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Padraig Dooley

Padraig Dooley

Padraig Dooley finished ahead of the field today at the PGA Southern Championship Pro-Am, thanks to a seven under par 65.  Dooley has been in fine form this year, but this is his first win on the Irish Region tour.  The Riverstown based Professional finished one shot ahead of the field.

There was a real Cork Golf Club feel to the top of the leaderboard with the top three all having strong links to the Little Island club.  David Ryan was right behind Dooley on -6 and David Higgins was third with a 68.    Monkstown’s Cian McNamara finished in the top 20, and it was good to see Castlemartyr’s Brady Sherwood back in action on the course.

Today’s golfers will be joined by David Barry, Conor Coyne and Ciaran McKenna for tomorrow’s first round at Powerscourt.  Higgins is one of the form golfers entering the competition, he won two events last week bringing his season total to seven wins – including the prestigious PGA Pros Championship in England last month.  The Southern Championship is a 36 hole tournament, it has a prize fund in excess of €13,000 and will conclude on Tuesday.

Live scoring will be available from this link from around 12pm.

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Final Heartbreak for Cork Ladies, ILGU Irish Senior Cup

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ILGU AIG Senior Cup Munster Final, Douglas Golf Club, Sunday 8th May 2015After two convincing wins in the quarter-final and semi-final, hopes were high that Cork would lift the ILGU Irish Senior Cup today.  And for a while it looked like a probability as Cork had the upper hand over Kilkenny.  The final between Cork and Kilkenny was a very fluid affair, with the balance shifting on almost every hole.  Kilkenny had a slight edge around the turn but Cork reversed the trend and were up in three matches and all square to lead 3.5-1.5 early in the back nine.  The momentum shifted yet again though and this time Kilkenny didn’t let go.  By the time the result was called in Kilkenny’s favour, Rachel Thompson was the only Cork player to win.  That said, it didn’t reflect Continue reading →

Cork Ladies through to Senior Cup Final

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ILGU AIG Senior Cup Munster Final, Douglas Golf Club, Sunday 8th May 2015

Cork Golf Club pictured after winning the Senior Cup Munster Final at Douglas.

Cork had two impressive wins today and booked themselves into the final of the Ladies Irish Senior Cup tomorrow.

Claire Coughlan Ryan overcame Fiona Moclair 5&4 and in the middle match, Paula Walsh secured a 6&4 victory over Claire Staunton. Cork’s Junior International Rachel Thompson added the final blow with a 2up win over past Senior International Mary Madden. The last two matches were called in, resulting in a 4-1 win for the Cork team.  It was more of the same in the afternoon when Cork took on Milltown in the semi-final.  Thompson (2&1), Walsh (5&3) and Coughlan Ryan (1up) all clocked up wins in the first three matches, putting Cork into the final.  Cork will face the winner of Kilkenny and Clandeboye which is still on the course.  Kilkenny are leading and look like going through.  The finals are taking place at Greystones Golf Club.

 

BALLINASLOE 1 CORK 4
Fiona Moclair (6) lost to Claire Continue reading →

Long Read: Senior Cup Success for Monkstown

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Monkstown bounced back from a heart-breaking Munster final loss last year, and secured their first Senior Cup pennant for 53 years. 

AIG Senior Cup Munster Finals, Cork Golf Club, Saturday13th August 2016

Monkstown Golf Club banished the harsh memories from last year as the bounced back to win the AIG Senior Cup Munster final.  Losses in finals, especially on the final green can generate mental scar tissue, but the Monkstown team showed no signs of weakness as they negotiated their way through a semi-final match against Ballybunion and a final win over Castletroy.  That’s not to say that Monkstown didn’t have Continue reading →

Butler through to last 16 in AIG Irish Close at Ballyliffin

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Munster Strokeplay Championship 2016Cathal Butler is the last Cork golfer left in the Irish Close at Ballyliffin, winning both of his matches today.  The Irish international and Munster Strokeplay winner beat Jonathan Yates 3&2 this morning and followed that with a 19th hole win over John Cleary.  Butler faces Jake Whelan in the second match tomorrow morning and is off at 8.09am.

Despite finishing in the top 20, James Sugrue ended up with one of the toughest draws, he was up against defending champion Tiernan McLarnon.  Unfortunately for Sugrue, McLarnon won on the 16th, and he also won in the afternoon to go through to the last 16.

Both John Hickey and John Murphy won their first round matches but exited the competition this afternoon.  Hickey beat Ronan Mullarney on the 18th today, and he took Richard Knightly to the 20th hole before losing out to the Royal Dublin man.

John Murphy saw the 20th as well, his morning match needed two extra holes before he saw off Rob Brazill.  The effort took Continue reading →

Sugrue Leads Cork challenge at Irish Close

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James Sugrue 2016

James Sugrue pictured with the Muskerry Senior Scratch Cup which he won earlier this year

The business end of the AIG Irish Close Championship gets underway tomorrow with four Cork golfers qualifying for the matchplay phase.  Mallow’s James Sugrue lead the Cork challenge with a pair of 75’s that saw him finish day two inside the top 20.  Sugure was going very well he was one over for the front nine, but a double on the par five 13th meant he signed for his second 75.  Kinsale’s John Murphy playing in his first Close is just one shot behind Sugrue.  He came in with a two over par 74 which bettered his opening round by three shots.  Cork’s John Hickey also bettered his opening score by three shots, a 75 today was a disappointing finish as the recent Barton Shield winner was -1 at the turn.  Hickey is Continue reading →

Closing 68 gives Desmond a second Bruen Youths Title

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Sean Desmond Bruen Youths 2016

Bruen Youths winner Sean Desmond pictured with President Maura Minogue, Richard Cahill Sponsor, David Bruen and Captain Tom Purcell.   Pic courtesy Muskerry Golf Club

Despite playing nine rounds of golf in the last seven days, Sean Desmond still had plenty left in the tank today as he aimed to retain his Bruen Youths title in Muskerry.  The Monkstown member spent last week in Ballybunion at the Kerry Boys, losing out on Friday morning to the eventual winner John Murphy.  After Ballybunion Sean headed for Cork Golf Club and played a huge role in Monkstown’s Senior Cup win on Saturday.  After the luxury of a day off on Sunday, he went to Muskerry hoping to add his name to a select group by winning a second Bruen Youths title.  Desmond opened with a 76, which had him three off the lead which was held by Jack Howard from Fota Island.  A few golfers were lurking near the top of the leaderboard, Timmy Broderick, Jack Egan and Darren Hourihan were all within two shots of the lead.  Howard added a 75 to his total in the afternoon, meaning that Desmond would need to shoot a level par 71 to win.  As it happened, Desmond was on level par heading onto the 18th, and he Continue reading →