James Sugrue had another good start to a tournament when he shot a 5 under par round on the first day of the Southern African Amateur Strokeplay. Although an opening birdie was followed by a bogey, Sugrue was back in the red on -3 at the turn. He added another three birdies on the second nine but a bogey on his final hole meant that he signed for 5 under to finish best of the Irish in fourth place. That score leaves him just one shot off the lead which is held by three golfers.
Rob Brazill was the next best of the Irish, finishing the top ten. He had a memorable ace on the par three 16th, but unfortunately for Rob he had a triple bogey 8 on the next hole. Ronan Mullarney, Mark Power and Conor Purcell are Continue reading
Mairead Martin recently enjoyed a few weeks at home after an exciting few months in the US on a golf scholarship in Kentucky. The Kanturk golfer who completed her leaving cert in June and in August she moved to start with their acclaimed womens golf programme. It was a great first semester, Mairead finished the second highest ranked golfer on the roster claiming two top ten finishes on her first five tournaments. It was a busy few months for the teenager as she settled into her new home for the next few years. “The first couple of weeks were tough and quite intense it took a while for me to get used to how busy each day was between school, practice and workouts” explained Mairead. “I struggled to find time to even think about home or even be homesick. When I arrived in Louisville the team and coaches couldn’t have been 
This year could be summarised as a game of two halves for John Murphy. The Kinsale golfer spent the first half of the year playing well but struggling to get results, but the second half saw him hit some key milestones. These included an international win, an Irish cap and get finish to the season back in college in the US. While 2018 may have been his best year, Murphy didn’t feel like that at the beginning of the year a he explained. “The college semester was difficult for me” recalled Murphy. “I didn’t feel like I was competing as I had in the past. I wasn’t producing results that were reflecting how I was playing. In all honesty, I was worried, I was shooting some poor scores and I was getting very frustrated with myself. It was tough. I remember having a call with my parents at regionals where I just shot 7 over par. I told them I was playing well but I just couldn’t score, and then we all realized that I had been saying that all semester, and maybe I was being delusional. The week I got back 
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