John Murphy had no joy in Portrush yesterday at the North of Ireland. Murphy was through to the last 16 but lost out in a tight match against Derek Downie. A disappointed Murphy headed back to Cork yesterday but one marginal benefit was a day off today as he prepares to join Kinsale’s challenge for the Barton Shield this weekend.
AIG Barton Shield :: South Munster 2017 Draw
Macroom plays host to the AIG Barton Shield tomorrow. Sixteen clubs will descend on the mid Cork course for the first eight round matches. It will be a busy morning, a two tee start means that all sixteen fourballs will be on the course by 9.30am. Two rounds are scheduled for tomorrow with the four semi-finalists going to play on Sunday morning. Cork Golf Club will be hoping to get their 2017 campaign off to a good start, the 2016 Munster Champions face Fermoy. Play in Macroom gets underway at 8.30am.
Meanwhile on Sunday Mahon and East Cork will head for Killarney for the Purcell and Bruen Munster finals.
There aren’t too many PGA Professionals that focus on a single area of golf, but while most specialise around teaching or playing or retailing, John Dooley has added another aspect. The Riverstown based pro has a busy teaching base in Drive Golf Performance but he also manages a bespoke golf tour business. After spending nearly a decade at Doonbeg, John saw a gap in the market. The experiences in Doonbeg led to John setting up Concierge Golf, a business which he describes as “combining coaching golf and managing golf tours into Ireland & Scotland.” The managing is the key part as John can help with everything from transport to dining. “Concierge Golf Ireland offers to manage golf holidays to Ireland & Scotland to golfers that would like more than just a booked golf tour” explained John. “To that point, we offer to book and manage tee times, various transporting types, standards of accommodation, where to go and what to do, along with any type of entertainment and setting up the dining experiences. There is a lot of time spent working on our customer’s golf tours, the workload per golf tour is quite significant mainly due to the details required by the customers. However, I really become energized for customers when they comment on how much they have enjoyed their Irish or 
John Murphy had two matchplay wins today to advance to the third round of the North of Ireland Open in Royal Portrush. They were two contrasting rounds, he needed a huge putt on the last this morning to get past Kiet Van Der Weele but made short work of Andrew Mulholland this afternoon. Murphy always seemed to have a narrow edge over his opponent from Holland this morning but it took a 25 foot putt on the last to go one up and advance to the last 32. This afternoon he faced Castlerock’s Mulholland and solid golf – and a good few birdies – saw him go five up at one stage near the end of the front nine. In the end he closed put the match on the 15th with a 4&3 win. He now goes on to play Derek Downie from Kirkistown Castle. It’ll be another early start for Murphy with a 7.45am tee time. He’ll be hoping for another long day tomorrow with two rounds scheduled to bring the competition down to the final four golfers.
Muskerry hosted the local league finals last Sunday and they came away with three wins in the battle of the “four Cork clubs”. Home advantage may or may not have been a factor but in any case Muskerry won all three competitions in which they were competing. There was one win each for Cork, Douglas and Monkstown in the other three finals.
James Sugrue is one of three likely Cork qualifiers to make it through to the match play stages of the North of Ireland Championship at Royal Portrush. The Mallow man recovered from a disappointing front nine one the championship course that saw him turn on +3. Sugrue fought back with three birdies to level his score on the back nine on the Dunluce links, he finished with a 36 hole total of 140 (-3) to claim a place in the top 25. Sugrue’s level par 72 was one of the better scores today with many golfers failing to get around the difficult course links without dropping shots. Kinsale’s Cathal Butler carded a three over par 75 today, when added to his 66 from yesterday the Kinsale man also qualified comfortably on 2 under par. He had 15 pars and a birdie, but two consecutive double bogies on the front nine cost him a few spots on the leaderboard. Conditions were much better for day two of the championship which saw 300 golfers play over both courses at the famous resort on the northern coast.
Kinsale’s Cathal Butler opened with a very impressive 66 at the North of Ireland Amateur Open yesterday. Playing on the Valley links in Royal Portrush the Maynooth student shot a round of -5 to grab a tie for fifth place. Butler went out in -1 after three birdies and two bodies on the opening nine, but a powerful back nine saw him return in -4. Birdies on the 10th & 11th were followed by an eagle on the par five 16th. That see’s him just two shots off the lead held by Rowan Lester.
Frankfield Golf Range continues to develop, and owners Coleman and Michael Ryan have succeeded in building a wonderful practice facility on the grounds where Mick Ryan Snr built a golf course over 30 years ago. A new short game area have been developed and now custom fitting has now arrived in Frankfield. The new fitting centre at the range provides golfers with hundreds of options when it comes to investing in new equipment. Working with McGuirks, Frankfield’s resident PGA Professionals Michael Ryan and David Whyte can match shafts with heads and grips to provide a truly customised solution for each golfer. Frankfield has teamed up with McGuirks to provide the new service. The retail chain has a shop just 800m from the range and now golfers can test the latest equipment options under the watchful eye of a PGA Professional. A full range of heads are 
Cork Golf News 