Blarney Golf Club have announced details of their senior scratch cup, the 36 hole event takes place in late May and the organisers are expecting to draw a high-quality field.  Darren Kelleher and Damien Kelleher are again organising the event and they’re busy getting ready.

“We are looking forward to hosting our third Christy Horgan Senior Scratch Cup on the 23rd of May” said Darren.  “We are delighted with how the first two stagings of the scratch cups have went, the feedback we got after each one was great to hear, and how much everyone enjoyed it and couldn’t wait to come back to play in it again so we are hoping for more of the same this year.”

This is the third staging of the event which was launched in 2024 to honour a Blarney stalwart, Christy Horgan.  “Christy was a gent and a great club man” said Darren Kelleher who recently played in the South of Ireland.  “He travelled all over Munster with teams in the club weather he was playing or managing and he also put a lot of time into the junior club in Blarney.”

The team in Blarney have been working hard over the winter to maintain and improve the John Daly signature design, which is celebrating being open 20 years this year.  “There has been a lot of maintenance on the course and a lot of work done to the course over the last year with new drainage on some of the fairways, bunkers have been redone and tee boxes have been reseeded.”

“The course has come on a lot in the last year, we recently hosted a Munster PGA event a few weeks back and the pros had nothing but good things to say about Blarney and how good the greens were. The course for the Scratch cup will be in great condition.

“We are hoping to attract a good field with Golf Ireland’s new strokes gained system, and it becoming the main source of entry into championships next year.  So we are hoping to attract some of the best amateurs in the country.  The interest has been good so far we have a nice field assembling.  David Reddan who is defending champion is returning to try and retain his trophy along with Keelan Mccarthy out of Lee Valley is returning to try put his name on the trophy for a second time.”

Over the past decade senior scratch cups have suffered from the expanded Irish championship season and the fact that an increasing number of the top amateurs are travelling to the UK and Europe for events.  The pilot strokes gained project will give bring a new level of relevance to club scratch cups.  With exemptions for the top Bridgestone Order of Merit golfers, and the top 4,000 in the WAGR rankings, the championship places left in handicap ballot are limited with entry cuts of +2 or +3 now common.

As well as counting for the new Golf Ireland ranking, there is also a generous prize fund on offer according to Darren.  “Our prize fund is excellent, €2,150 with €750 for first place.  That is all thanks to our sponsors, none of this would be possible without them, Day & Night Security Systems, Tradeworkz.ie, Aunties Bar, Dan Donovan Ltd, Masterlink Logistics, Muskerry Arms, Quinlan’s Bar, Grassland Agro.”  Anyone interested in entering can contact Darren on 085 21909199 or Damien on 087 7770309.

Next week will see the first major competition of the season when Lee Valley will host their BoyleSports sponsored scratch cup.  The 54 hole event has attracted some top names with Irish Internationals Colm Campbell, David Howard and Caolan Rafferty leading the field.  Golfers from all over Ireland have entered the event, keen to get in a few competitive rounds as the season starts.  Over 80 golfers will tee it up on the Saturday with the top 25 going forward for Sunday’s final round.  Entries for the event closed yesterday and a waiting list is now in operation.

The event is back to it’s traditional April date after a change in 2025.  The rebuilding of the 2^nd green in the first half of the year meant that the scratch cup was pushed back until the Autumn.  Robbie Walsh picked up his second Lee Valley title following a play-off with Ben Murray.  Tournament director Vincent Drinan is looking forward to the event, and is hoping for some warm weather to help with course conditions over the coming week.  Courses across the county will have seen a big increase in golfers as the weather improves.