Dun Laoghaire’s Alan Fahy who won the Munster Strokeplay Championship at Cork Golf Club. Picture: Niall O’Shea
Leinster’s dominance of the Munster Strokeplay continued yesterday when Dun Laoghaire‘s Alan Fahy became the fifth winner from the province in seven years. Claiming his first senior championship win, he had a very impressive second day in Cork, he was eight under for his final 36 holes. That helped him overturn a four shot deficit, and that was enough to hive him a two stroke win. Fahy shot an excellent 66 on Sunday morning to tie for the lead with halfway leader Robbie Cannon, and he was still level with the Balbriggan man after the final front nine. Although Fahy birdied the 16th, he felt he need more and was disappointed when a good putt on the 17th shaved the hole. With one chance remaining, the 20 year old Maynooth University student drilled his tee shot on the 18th, and he followed that with a superb 8 iron from 140 yards which finished five feet from the hole. A firm uphill putt hit the centre of the hole and he carded Continue reading
Monkstown’s Shane Irwin captured his first professional win on Monday when he won the Morgan O’Donovan Perpetual Trophy at his home course. The Limerick native shot a 65 to claim the final event in Munster PGA winter series. Irwin had a great start, he had a birdie on the second, and the had four in a row from the fourth to the seventh. Two more birdies followed on the back nine but he also had two bogies. Holding the lead from the back nine was crucial as he had one shot to spare over the holder David Higgins. Cian McNamara was third a further shot back. It was a double win for Irwin, he partnered Monkstown President Ada O’Sullivan won the pro-am competition. The pair scored 47 points to finish three points ahead of the field. Needles to say, Shane was delighted with his win. “It’s always nice to win, especially against such good players that were playing today’s event” said the Monkstown assistant. “To win is always great no matter what your playing. I didn’t except to have any great intentions as myself and Cian had so many things on our mind regarding the event. I must say that today’s event was a great success for everyone the club, and it was a great day to remember Morgan O Donovan and what I’ve been told a humble and great man he was not only in Monkstown but everywhere he worked and played.” The Monkstown pro-am marked the start of a busy summer season for PGA Professionals and Shane is looking forward to the season. “I’ll be 
The golf course at Adare Manor officially reopened last week, marking the final stage in the redevelopment of the Adare Manor estate after it was purchased by the McManus family. The course closed in late 2015, and soon after world renowned designer Tom Fazio was commissioned to oversee the redevelopment of the course. Over two years later the property has been transformed, and has been christened “parkland perfection” by one tour professional. In typical McManus fashion, he staged an exhibition match to officially launch the course and the 2020 Pro Am. And even more typical the match was comprised of golfers who have won seven majors, three 
Many Cork people will be familiar with Adare. A large proportion of Cork golfers will have played the course, and many more will have visited when it hosted the Irish Open or the JP McManus ProAm. On the redesigned course, every tee box and green remain are effectively the same place. While the order of the holes and general layout remains the same, everything else has been transformed. Each green and tee has been rebuilt and redesigned from scratch, with significant underground installations for drainage, new irrigation and watery delivery systems. Every bunker has been replaced with the latest capillary concrete liner drainage technology. All of the fairways have been sand-capped for the driest playing conditions. All of the numbers in Adare are astounding. Over 180,000 tonnes of sand were brought in to improve playability and redefine the course. On top of that 77 new tee boxes were constructed stretching the course from 5,120 metres on the red tees, to a massive 7,509 metres off the Gold championship tees. While there are four measured course lengths on the card, greenkeepers have plenty of choices in setting up the course for any 
Cork Golf News 