Fota Island captured their first Golf Ireland pennant in Dungarvan at the weekend, they came through four matches to win the Munster East Area Final.  The Cork side had an impressive win over Macroom on Saturday morning, and they had a similar win over hosts Dungarvan in the afternoon.  Going with the pairings of Sean Barry & John Doyle and Keith Crowley & David Howard they came through the first two matches to reach the semi-finals.

Gallery: AIG Barton Shield 2023, Munster East

With John Doyle unavailable due to international duty on Sunday, former Cork hurler Rob White stepped in to great effect, and by Sunday afternoon Fota Island were the winners.  The Munster East champions will now head to Dun Laoghaoire in early September for the national inter-club finals.  Team managers Ross Williams and Brian Kelleher also have Sam Hogan, Jack Murphy and Thomas O’Flynn in the squad, giving them a really strong hand to pick from.  It was a second pennant for Fota Island’s David Howard, he was part of the team that won a Munster Irish Mixed Foursomes title in 2019.

In Saturday’s matches there were ten Cork clubs in action.  Castlemartyr were first off and they had had a two hole win over Blarney and Muskerry saw off the challenge of Mitchelstown.  Bandon had a six hole win over Gold Coast but Cobh lost out to Tramore.  The surprise of the morning came when the hosts Dungarvan beat Douglas by four holes.  Douglas had been hoping for success after their Senior Cup area final loss last week, but their wait for a Munster East pennant goes on.

Kinsale weren’t in action until Saturday afternoon as their received a walkover from Cahir Park, and they were up against Castlemartyr in the first of the quarter final matches. It was a close game but the 2019 winners Kinsale went through with a three hole win.  Muskerry faced Waterford Castle and dispatched them to set up a semi-final against Kinsale.

In the lower half of the draw Fota Island had another double digit win over Dungarvan and in the last match Tramore saw off Bandon after the Waterford side brought in Pat Murray and Paul Flynn for their quarter final match.  In Sunday’s semi-finals the all Cork pairing of Kinsale and Muskerry attracted a large crowd.  Muskerry had previously won a Munster title in Dungarvan in 2015, and they won a close match against 2018 winners.

In the second semi final saw off a tough challenge from Tramore to set up the final against Muskerry.  Brian Lane and Fionn Hickey were paired off for Muskerry along with John Waldron and Stephen Riordan.  They were a few down to Fota at the turn but they didn’t fall further behind and eventually ran out of holes as the win went to Fota.