James Sugrue Pic. Brian Arthur
It may have taken a few additional holes, but James Sugrue has made it through to the last 16 of the South of Ireland in Lahinch. Having won his first round match 3&1, the holder was looking like losing his second round match, after being behind for much of the match he was two down with three to play. He birdied the 16th and 18th holes to force the match onto the 19th. After doing plenty of hard work he needed a 10 foot par putt on the 19th, and he was unlucky not to win on the 20th when Ross Latimer knocked in a decent birdie putt. Latimer’s putter saved him again on the 3rd in what was a text book display of steady par matchplay golf. The deadlock finally broke on the 22nd (4th), after a brief rain delay the players resumed with Sugrue birdieing the par five to claim the win. Overall it was a good day for Cork golfers. Peter O’Keeffe won his morning match on the 16th and he wrapped up his second round match on the same hole after playing some very solid golf. John Hickey and Gary O’Flaherty both won the 18th while Sean Desmond wrapped up his match on the 16th. John Hickey continued his good form in the afternoon and overcame Robert Morgan 3&2. The all Cork matchup of Gary O’Flaherty and Sean Desmond promised to be an interesting match, with O’Flaherty taking a slender lead early on. O’Flaherty stretched the lead the 3 holes on the 10th and while Desmond won the 13th with a great birdie, O’Flaherty’s birdie on the 14th restored the margin. In the end the Cork member closed out the match with a 3&2 win Continue reading
The second round in Lahinch came to an abrupt halt today as heavy rain flooded the course causing the second strokeplay round to be abandoned. With the first round scores counting, the top 64 cut fell at +2 with not all on that score qualifying. Kinsale’s Eric Rumley was one of those to miss out, the countback from yesterday costing him a place in the matchplay.
The Amateurs reclaimed the bragging rights in the Pro Shop Challenge last week, as Cathal Butler and John Murphy beat Ger Broderick and Ian Stafford in Kinsale. It was the third staging of the unique event and while the amateurs won on the course the real winner was the charity partners. Over €4,000 was raised for Marymount and the RNLI. Organiser Ian Stafford was delighted with the results of their fundraising event. “We’re absolutely delighted with the amount of money that we have raised to date which is in the region of €4,500” said Stafford. “To surpass our target of €3,600 by nearly €1,000 is phenomenal and much of this is down to the hard work of our captain Brian Doran who has been a huge help in securing sponsorship to the event. This year we had local businesses sponsoring each hole as well of a number of sponsored challenges throughout the round. To think when we first discussed this event three years ago that we would have raised nearly €11,000 from the first 3 events is hard to believe and we are absolutely delighted with the support we have got.”
Cathal Butler was delighted to win back the title they lost last year, although they may have had some assistance from 
Cian McNamara is just two shots off the lead in the PGA Professional Championship at Little Aston. The Monkstown man produced rounds of 67 and 69 to reach the halfway stage on -8 and tied for 4th place. McNamara is on a run of good form and had 13 birdies over the two rounds to put himself in a position to claim the £10,000 top prize. McNamara has finished in the top ten last year and will be hoping for another decent payday this year. David Higgins is just outside the top ten on -6 and Headforts Joe Dillon is just one off the lead on -9.
Cork Golf News 