A dozen Cork golfers will be hoping to bridge a 13 year gap and win the South of Ireland Championship this week. Mallow’s Meryvn Owens was the last man to bring the famous trophy back to Cork in 2003, when he beat the holder Colm Moriarty on the 18th green in Lahinch. Cork winners have been few and far between, John McHenry won in 1986 and before that there’s a 22 year gap to W A Kelleher’s win. The statistics would suggest that a few more years should pass before the next Cork winner, but given the strength and depth of the Cork golfers competing this year, don’t rule out a good run from a few of the form golfers.
Irish Amateur Open winner Peter O’Keeffe leads the Cork challenge, and O’Keeffe be hoping to play all seven rounds over the five days that will see him into the final. The big hitting Douglas member is currently playing of +3.3, and he’ll be joined by his friend and Barton Shield teammate Karl Bornemann. Kinsale have three representatives in the field, John Murphy has two wins in the bag this year and will be hoping to gain his first senior title. Cathal Butler won the Munster Strokeplay Continue reading
Castlemartyr is a busy place right now and the August weekend will be one of the busiest with their annual scratch cup weekend. Starting on Friday 4th August, the event is set to attract well over 400 golfers over the three days and there’s a large prize fund in place. The event is again sponsored by McCarthy Insurance Group who have been on board for the past four years. The course is set to be in great condition for the showpiece event, the recent fine weather has allowed Trevor Norris and his team to speed up the course which is always a treat for handicap golfers. The three scratch cups (Junior, Intermediate and Minor) take place from Friday to Sunday and the timesheet is filling fast. Since the course opened it became an immediate favourite for both societies and casual golfers. The weekly open singles series are always popular and the membership has grown steadily over the past decade.
Midleton CBS Past Pupils GS won the 75th William Dwyer Trophy last week and this is the third time that the society have won the event. Previous winners in 2002 and 2006, the society are long term supporters of the event, and last week they ran away from the field with three great scores. Paul Cashman and Bernard Cashman led out the PPU team and their gross 80 was converted to a nett 71 when their nine shots were counted. Midleton’s third pairing of Derek Coll and Maurice Conway were also in the red after they shot a nett 71, thanks in part to a one over par front nine. Bob Cotter and John Moloney weren’t too far off the pace, set by their team mates, they signed for a level par 72 which beat CBS’s fourth card from Michael John Roche and Cormac Carroll. It was one of the best 
Cork’s Rachel Thompson is through to the final four in the Irish Girls Close. Thompson came through two tough rounds in Mallow today, and the leading qualifier is safely through to tomorrow’s semi-final. The Cork golf club member wrapped up yesterday’s first round match on the 13th winning 7&5 but today she went to the 19th before getting past Emma Forbes from Portrush. This afternoon her match with Georgina Carr went to the 17th with the Cork girl taking the match on a 2&1 margin to put her through to tomorrow’s semi-final with Maeve Rooney. There were wins too for Mairead Martin and Valerie Clancy, both golfers also come through two matchplay rounds today to qualify for the semi-final. They now face each other in the second semi-final tomorrow morning.
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.
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 
