Peter O’Keeffe has worked hard all year to win a senior scratch cup, and this weekend he won two. After shooting a winning 68 in Kinsale yesterday, O’Keeffe was back on course this morning in Castlemartyr. Starting early again, the Douglas man plotted his way around the Ron Kirby designed links and carved out a three under par 69.
And O’Keeffe repeated another thing this morning that he did yesterday. He lost a ball on the opening hole and took a double bogey. The Munster golfer’s tee shot found the heavy rough and the ball was lost. Like yesterday he recovered and added three pars before getting his first birdies on the 5th. He also birdied the par five 8th to gt back to level par before parring the 9th. O’Keeffe went under par following a birdie on the 11th but couldn’t do better than that as he parred the next five holes where at least a birdie or two might have been expected. He capitalised on the closing holes however. He chipped in on the 17th after missing the green, and on the last hole he hit a nine iron from 175 yards to ten feet. He made the putt to sign for a winning 69.
Dave O’Donovan (Muskerry) took second place with a 73 and Kinsale’s Cathal Butler was third with a 74. Mallow’s James Sugrue was fourth with 75 and Michael Lenihan won the best nett prize.
Mahon will head to Ballyneety Golf Club tomorrow to take on Lahinch in the final of the the Fred Daly Plate. The Munster competition was launched last year and all first round losers from the Fred Daly Trophy are entered.
John Murphy eagled his second last hole of the day today to jump into the lead after two rounds of strokeplay qualifying at the European Boys Team Championships in Czech Republic. After opening with a bogey, John added two birdies to turn on -1. He played steady par golf all the way back until a great eagle on the par five 17th saw him move to -3 and jump into the lead. It was another good day for Ireland as they took four of the first five spots, and finished 23 shots ahead of second placed.
Lady Captain’s Kate Heffernan’s Day Results 11th September 2016
John Murphy (Kinsale) shot a level par 72 on the opening day of the European Boy’s Team Championships today. The competition is taking place in Czech Republic and Murphy was one of the later starters this morning and opened with birdie. He had three bogies on the front nine but turned on +1, two birdies and a bogey on the back nine meant that he signed for a level par 72 to lie in 5th place. It was a very good day for Ireland, Kevin leBlanc holds the lead on -4 and all six Irish golfers are in the top 20. Tomorrow will be an important day for the Irish, the second round of strokeplay qualifying will determine the matchplay draws with the top four countries playing-off for the Championship title.
