Kinsale PGA Professionals Ger Broderick and Ian Stafford face a tough challenge later this month as they will take on John Murphy and Cathal Butler in the “Pro-Shop Challenge”. The event takes place at Kinsale Golf Club on Monday 22nd August and the event is a fundraiser for the Special Olympics World Winter Games in Austria next year.
The idea came from Ian Stafford who’s nephew Darragh Ryan is a volunteer with Special Olympics. Ian explained how the event came about: “I volunteered time as a golf coach with the Special Olympics in the past so I personally know that is a worthy cause. It was my idea to have the charity match and Ger, John and Cathal all jumped at the opportunity to participate for such a worthy cause, I haven’t heard of something like this been staged locally before so I thought it might be something different and may peak some interest for the golf fan.”
The format for the day will be a fourball better ball strokeplay match over 18 holes between the 2 professionals in the club, Ger Broderick and Ian Stafford against the reining Munster Strokeplay and Fota Scratch Cup Champion Cathal Butler and reining Munster Boys and Kerry Continue reading
Fota Island won the AST Trophy in Cobh on Friday with a great performance to beat the 12 other teams. The players on the winning Fota Island team were: Ben Quigley, Cian Long, Evan Murphy, Ronan O’Connell and Shane Galvin. They had a three point win over Lee Valley and Monkstown took third place. Fota’s Evan Murphy had the best boys score while Catherine Cronin from Muskerry led the girls. The event which is now in it’s 4th year is sponsored by Adrian and Suzanne Tanzer.
Niall Turner made a positive return to tour golf after spending three months on the sidelines. Turner suffered a recurrence of his hip injury which saw him miss several start on the Asian and European Tours. He returned to action this week in the Kings Cup in Thailand and made the cut for the weekend. The Waterfall native opened with a 69 yesterday and he added a 72 today to stand on +1. Turner made the cut right on the mark but that won’t bother him too much as he now has two more rounds to sharpen his game.


Munster Boys winner John Murphy was named on the Irish team that will compete in the Boys Home Internationals next week. Murphy is one of two Munster players named on a strong side that features the winners of the Irish Boys, Leinster Boys and Munster Boys events. Andrew Mulhall from Waterford Castle is the other Munster golfers to be named on the team of 11. Murphy is currently in action in the Ulster Boys Open at Bangor Golf Club. Murphy shot an opening 75 in testing conditions and is well inside the cut mark going into day two. Shane Galvin (Fota Island) and Adam Walsh (Mallow) are also in action.
Open week at Fora Island gets underway tomorrow, and although the week has been heaving booked there may be some late availability or cancellations for anyone hoping to get out on the the 2014 Irish Open Championship course.