Liam McDonnell, Captain, Liz Horgan, Bank of Ireland and Corrie Ward, President of Castletroy Golf Club
Picture by Dave Gaynor
Castletroy Golf Club has announced details of this year’s Senior Scratch Cup, which is, once again kindly sponsored by Bank of Ireland. The competition takes place on Saturday, May 20th. First competed for in 1948, the Castletroy trophy is one of the oldest and most prestigious scratch cups in the country and attracts the cream of Munster golf and some of Ireland’s best amateur golfers each year. As a Munster Senior Golf “Order of Merit” tournament, results in the Castletroy Senior Scratch Cup are included in the selection criteria for the Munster team in the Senior Golf Interprovincial Series. The course, currently ranked at #61 in Ireland and measuring almost 7,000 yards off the back tees, consistently Continue reading
Barry Anderson followed up his recent win the West of Ireland by claiming the Munster Strokeplay Championship in Cork Golf Club today. Rounds of 70 & 72 saw Anderson edge out Peter O’Keeffe and Ronan Mullarney but one shot. The 2014 champion won the West two weeks ago and followed up with another win today in tough conditions in Cork. Anderson shot a two under par 70 this morning and needed to get up and down from the fringe on the 18th to sign for a 72. Anderson was battling with Peter O’Keeffe, the Douglas golfer found a fairway bunker on 18, and a bad lie meant he couldn’t go for the green. He had a 35 foot putt for par but missed, meaning Anderson won by a single stroke. Ronan Mullarney had two rounds of 71 today and finished tied for second place with O’Keeffe. Mullarney also won the Carr Bruen trophy as the best Under 25. 
Entries are now open for the 75th consecutive staging of William Dwyer inter-society competition. Two qualifiers will take place in June with Cork Golf Club hosting the final in early July. Any society can enter and the format is foursomes with teams of eight taking part. Four teams will qualify from each day in Mahon.
Although the scratch cup weekend is now over, Lee Valley will continue to be a busy place for both golfers and staff. Lee Valley’s Director of golf David Keohane was delighted with the feedback from golfers over the weekend and he was quick to point out that they are continuing to develop the course which celebrates 25 years next year. “We have some great plans for the course in 2017” said Keohane. “Four new tee boxes are currently being constructed. The 1st, 6th, 12th and 16th will be completely redesigned with each of them being widened and lengthened. The pick of these tee boxes is our new par three sixteenth where we have raised the tee box by over five feet and created a surface 25 by 30 meters. The base for the new tee box was so large that many 
Cork’s Gary O’Flaherty won his second Lee Valley Scratch Cup in style today with a two shot win over a strong field. O’Flaherty started the third round one shot off the leaders, Andrew McCormack and Dave O’Donovan, but all three were level going onto the 9th hole. The conditions were near perfect and things were tight on the back nine until O’Flaherty birdied the 13th and 15th to stretch ahead. He parred his way home from the 15th, maintaining a two shot buffer. The only hope for the chasers was when he ended up in the greenside bunker on the 18th, but the 2012 winner splashed out to five feet and calmly made the uphill putt. O’Flaherty’s four under par total was made up of a 69/72/21 over the three rounds. James Sugrue took second place 
