Castlemartyr Captain Michael Lee presents Greg Allen with a gift following the very successful members evening with Peter Alliss in December
Castlemartyr Captain Michael Lee and his committee should have a great but busy year ahead of them. With over 150 new members, Castlemartyr has now entered the major leagues in term of managing club competitions and inter-club events. “This is going to be a very busy year for myself as Captain and for my Committee” said Michael, “but I am looking forward to the challenge ahead this year, I have a good mix of experienced and new people on my committee and we are looking forward to helping all members of the club to enjoy a good golfing year ahead.”
With a new ILGU affiliated Ladies Club in addition to the new male members, Castlemartyr should find themselves competing at all levels of inter-club competitions. Castlemartyr reached the Munster finals of the AIG Senior Cup in 2014 so they will be hoping to match that achievement in one of the five GUI Cups and Shields competitions. “As Captain I am really looking forward to the teams events this year” said Michael, “for the first time in the clubs short history we will be putting in a mixed foursomes team for competition. With all the members we have now I expect a lot of competition for all the team events.”
And he also added his support for the investment in machinery that took place in 2015: “The owners have bought a lot of new machinery to keep the course going in the great condition it is in at the moment, and to hopefully have Continue reading
Kinsale’s John Murphy capped off a great year last week when he announced that he would be heading to the US in the second half of 2017 on a golf scholarship. Later this year Murphy will head for Kentucky to take up a place with the Cardinals at the University of Louisville. Murphy will join Galway’s Devin Morley who started in Louisville in 2016, and Assistant Coach Aaron O’Callaghan who is in his third year coaching at the division one college.
John Murphy became the only golfer to win the Munster Junior Golfer of the Year in November. Murphy picked up his second successive award from Munster Golf having also won the Boys Order of Merit. Having competed in all of the provincial events at Boys and Youths levels, Murphy gave himself every chance of performing well in the Order of Merit. He scored well in the Irish Youths and the Irish Boys which ultimately separated him from the other contenders.
On course, 2016 had a very slow start with record rain-fall levels meaning that there was no play until late February. After that though the season got underway pretty quickly, and the mild weather in the past three months has allowed clubs to catch up on the slow start.
Normally the transition from Boy’s golf to Men’s golf can take a few years, but this season Cathal Butler proved the jump can happen very quickly. The Kinsale golfer started his first season after Boy’s golf with three big wins. In March he won the Fota Island Senior Scratch Cup, shooting an impressive 67 on the two-time Irish Open course, and what’s more impressive is that he finished five clear of a strong field. He followed that in May by winning the Munster strokeplay, beating Cork’s Gary O’Flaherty on the second hole of a sudden death play-off. After being selected for the Munster Interprovincial team, Cathal rounded off the summer with a win in the Killarney Senior Scratch Cup. Outside of the scratch cups, Butler had several good performances in the national championships. He made it through to the last 16 in the West, and the last 32 in the East. He also finished tied for 
The final round of the Munster Youths took place at Monkstown on the 1st April with Mallow’s James Sugrue chasing his second title. Torrential rain however forced the abandonment of the final round meaning that second round leader Jack McDonnell was declared winner. James Sugrue continued his good form and won the Muskerry Senior Scratch Cup, the first of a four week swing of senior competitions. 
Cork Golf News 