Kinsale’s ProShop Challenge returns in August and the fourball challenge will have a new golfer, former Irish Rugby hooker and captain Rory Best. The Ulster man is a brand ambassador for Arachas Insurance, and he will team up with Arachas backed golfer John Murphy to take on Ger Broderick and Ian Stafford. This will be the fifth staging of the event with started in 2016, and the event makes a welcome return after missing 2020 due to covid. John Murphy has been on the challenger team each of the four years, his tour schedule in 2021 and 2022 made it difficult to get a date, but the 2023 event is now scheduled for Thursday 10th August.
This year’s event has a poignant link to the first ProShop Challenge from 2016, the 2023 event is in memory of Darragh Ryan. Darragh was a nephew of Ian Stafford and passed away last year after a battle with cancer.
Stafford drove the original event as a fundraiser for Special Olympics, and over the four events the ProShop Challenge raised over €15,000 for a number of local charities. This time around two Cork charities will benefit from the fundraising, ARC Cancer Support House and Breakthrough Cancer Research. As with the previous years, both beneficiaries are personal to Ian as he explained.
Gallery: Kinsale Pro Shop Challenge 2019
“The original idea behind it was to help raise money to send Darragh Ryan, my nephew as a volunteer to aid Team Ireland at 2017 Special Olympics World Winter Games in Austria. In April of last year Darragh was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of cancer and lost his battle with the disease on December 20th aged 23. During the eight months Darragh was ill a constant question we asked as a family was what has caused this and why wasn’t there any way of treating this, it is during times like this that you become aware of organisations like Breakthrough Cancer Research and they work they do to try and find ways to prevent and treat this awful disease.”
“If we can help BCR in any small way to further their work to maybe help find some solutions and answers for other families who were in the position we were in it would be of great comfort to us.
Dealing with the shock of an unexpected cancer diagnosis for a family member is very difficult, your outlook on life and your priorities change in an absolute instant. Cork ARC House were there for my family throughout Darragh’s illness to help us through the adjustment and have been there ever since to help us deal with his loss.”
Getting someone other than a scratch amateur or a pro is a new development for the event and it came about thanks to John’s enthusiasm for the cause. “John said that we have to do this again but we said if we are going to do it we need to make more money than we ever raised before” said Stafford. “Both John and I have been lucky to get to spend some time with Rory Best over the past two years through one of John’s sponsors Arachas Insurance so I called Rory explained what we wanted to do and we would love him to come and play and he said yes. Rory has just raised well over €1 Million himself for the Cancer Fund for Children through his Miles2Mayo Walk so we know we have the right guy involved.”
Murphy has played with Best on a few occasions and he’s excited to team up with the Irish legend. “I’m just glad there’s no contact in golf. Rory is well used to pressure and is well able to hit a golf ball. It’s going to be a lot of fun, he’s very competitive and I think he’ll really want to come out on top.”
This year the competition will take the format of a skins game, with the team with the most winning holes taking the perpetual trophy. It all starts in Kinsale Golf Club at 2pm on Thursday 10th August and large crowd is expected on day. Entry is free and donations can be made on the day.
While the event is a few weeks away, the response has been incredible. Already it has raised €10,000 in hole sponsorship, tee box sponsorship and individual donations. With more donations Anyone interest in sponsoring a hole or donating the event can contact Ian directly on 086 3451578. More details are available on Ian’s website, http://www.isgolfcoaching.com.
Cork Golf News 