James Sugrue in action in the South of Ireland last year
James Sugrue and John Murphy were today named on a 26 man extended panel for the Walker Cup, and both will be hoping for a good summer of golf to boost their chances of making the ten man team for September. The Walker Cup takes place in Royal Liverpool (Hoylake) later this year, and both will hope to follow in the footsteps of John McHenry (1987) and Jimmy Bruen (1938/49/51) in making the final team. Mallow’s Sugrue (22) was disappointed two weeks ago when he had to withdraw from the European Nations Cup due to injury. Now he’s back at full strength he’ll be looking forward to the squad practice in Hoylake next week prior to playing in the Lytham Trophy the following weekend. Kinsale’s John Murphy (20) is currently in Kentucky with Continue reading
There might be a father & son final tomorrow, or it could be O’Sullivan v O’Sullivan, in any case there are just four left from the 64 starters in the Ford Muskerry Junior Scratch Trophy. Fota Island have two golfers left, father and son David and John Howard. David beat Jack Boyd (Muskerry) and David Byrnes (Castletroy) today to advance, while Dad John beat fellow Fota Island member Evan O’Connell this morning, and followed that by beating Muskerry Captain (and former winner) Diarmuid Linehan. Both Howard’s will have their hands full in the morning, they face two people closely linked with Muskerry. Although Mark O’Sullivan is currently a Cork member, he grew up on the course in Muskerry and will no doubt be hoping that local knowledge will help him along the way tomorrow. Adrian O’Sullivan will play John Howard and he’s a lifelong Muskerry member and like Mark, he’ll be hoping that his experience around the Cloghroe links will see him though against his Fota opponent. Play tomorrow morning will get underway at 8am, with the final schedule for 1pm. The ultimate winner will have come through a 300 to 1 challenge, a strokeplay qualifier and six rounds of matchplay to be crowned the Ford Muskerry Junior Scratch Trophy Champion 2019.
Donal McDonnell was the winner on Sunday, picking up his first Senior Scratch Cup title. Fota Island held their annual showpiece on Sunday, again in association with Top Golfer. There was a full timesheet for the event on the Deerpark course, and the three time Irish Open venue proved itself yet again as nobody could break par. Although the course was in great condition, it did play all of it’s 6,927 yards. Donal McDonnell from Monkstown was the winner after four players tied on 73. McDonnell took the title ahead of John O’Brien (Castlemartyr), Kieran Kennedy (Thurles) and David Howard (Fota Island). The Monkstown golfer is a regular on Monkstown’s successful Senior Cup team and has a provincial winners medal, Donal is also Junior Officer in Monkstown. This was his first senior scratch cup title and needless to say he was delighted with his win. Although he was four over par at the turn, McDonnell put together a great back nine. He shot two under for the second nine, and finished 3,3,4 which was crucial in terms of his placing for the countback. Although the top four were tied, John O’Brien took second place, Kennedy was third and David Howard was fourth. Howard had a busy weekend, on Saturday the four handicapper shot a 75 in Muskerry in the Ford Junior Scratch Trophy qualifier, and on Sunday he beat his handicap by two when he shot the 73. Anyone looking to play Fota this week can take advantage of their Masters Week specials, full details are available from the pro shop.
Over 300 golfers played in Muskerry over Friday and Saturday, trying to get a place in the top 64 for the Ford Junior Scratch Trophy. Former winner John McSweeney led the qualifiers with a one over par 72. The 2003 winner was tied with Ed Hayes on Friday as the lowest qualifier. Sean Deasy from Douglas was the best on Saturday, he also shot 72 gross to finish in the top three.
Cork Golf News 