It might be early January but many amateur golfers will be planning their calendars for the year ahead.  The Golf Ireland 2024 championship calendar kicks off inMarch but the first event to take place in Cork will be the Cork Women’s Scratch Cup on the 27^th April. A week later the Munster Men’s Open takes place in Cork on its now traditional May bank holiday weekend date.  Later in May Kinsale will host the Munster Men’s Seniors.  Muskerry will host the Munster Boys and Munster Girls in early July with a close qualifier for boys taking place in the same venue a week earlier.

One the national calendar, the South of Ireland retains its place in calendar in late July and Lahinch will be looking forward to the Palmer Cup which it also hosts earlier in July.  The West of Ireland takes place in Sligo over Easter and six weeks later it will host the Flogas Irish Amateur Open.  The Women’s Irish Open takes place in Woodbrook in June.  Roscommon will host the Women’s and Girls Irish Close while the Men’s Irish Close takes place in Dun Laoghaire in mid August.

Changes to the structure of the inter-club competitions were announced in November and Golf Ireland recently revealed the dates and venues for the final stages of the national and new regional competitions.  Douglas and Kanturk will host the last 16 stages for the AIG Senior Cup, that takes place in late June.  Bandon and Youghal will host the Munster Boys inter-club qualifiers also in June while Cork will be a busy place a few weeks later.  They will host the later stage of the regional matches of the Senior Foursomes, Minor Foursomes, Jimmy Bruen and the Fred Perry Trophy.  The AIG Barton Shield finals will take place in Fota Island in late July.  Fota Island will also host the Munster Inter-Club Women’s trophy that weekend.

Monkstown hosted both regional and national events last year and this year they will host the Fred Daly and Fred Daly plate finals.  Down the road Douglas will host the Boys Junior Foursomes finals a week later.  Mallow will host the later stages of the Revive Active Women’s fourball, Flogas Mixed Foursomes and Cashman Cup.  The Cashman Cup returns this year for the first time since 2021 and it’s fitting that the final will be held in East Cork in early September.  The final of the Munster Women’s Trophy will also be held in East Cork that weekend.

The changes announced in November mean that new handicap limits and bands apply to many competitions, as well as that the number of pairs in many of the foursomes competitions has been reduced to four.  Cork has missed out on hosting the All Ireland finals of the inter-club competitions for another year.  Starting in late August, Carlow, Athlone, Gort, Shannon and Oughterard are all scheduled to host the finals of the fourteen national competitions.

On the courses around Cork things have been quiet.  Heavy rainfall for the final two weeks in December meant that several courses were closed or had a limited amount of holes open.  Even where courses were open the playing conditions tested the resolve of the most committed golfers.

2023 brought a number of firsts in terms of the weather, and the changing climate is having an effect on golf courses.  While the start of the year was positive with February being one of the driest and mildest on record, there were record rainfall amounts in March, July and October.  Storms in April, August and October also brought disruption.

The country did record the hottest year in recent history with the average annual temperature over 11 degrees for the first time.  These changes have mean that clubs and courses need to review their medium and long term course plans.  New irrigation systems may be needed to cope with the drier and hotter months, while the increased rainfall means that courses will also have to focus on drainage.

The weather is also forcing change on course inputs with costs in the areas of fertilisers, fuel and machinery all increasing across 2022 and 2023.  Some courses are also looking at changing their seed mixes and overseeding programmes to cope with the warmer and wetter weather.  The great news for Cork golfers is that there were no course closures in 2023, with many clubs and owners committing to improvements and developments to continue the positive drive in the sport.