Davey Barry (Douglas)
Davey Barry shot a one under par 71 at Moyvalley today in the third round of the Irish PGA Championship. Barry moved up the leaderboard on day three and now he’s in 10th place. The Douglas assistant professional started brightly with a birdie on the first but a bogey on the 5th brought him back to level par for the day. A bogey on the 16th was book-ended by birdies on the 12th and 17th which meant that Barry signed for a 71. Cian McNamara slumped to a 77 for this third round, a double bogey on the last was a tough way to finish for the Monkstown Professional who had recovered from a poor start. McNamara is now in 13th place. David Higgins is the best placed Munster Pro, he had a 71 today and is tied for 8th place. The lead is still held by Colm Moriarty from Drive Golf Performance. Moriarty’s 70 was one of the low rounds of the day and he has a one stroke lead over Damien McGrane and holder Niall Kearney.
David Ryan jumped up 14 places on the leaderboard thanks to his 73 today, but Ciaran McKenna dropped out of contention after a disappointing round. Tomorrow will see the final round of Continue reading
Azahara Munoz leads the Costa Del Sol Open after the first 36 holes, an she has Corkman Simon Keelan on the bag with her. Keelan has spent much of the summer caddying on the Ladies European Tour. Last week the pair were in action in the Evian Championship in Paris but it was a disappointing week as Munoz finished down the field. This week she bounced back on home soil and led the field after a second round 66. Keelan was seen on Sky Sports looking 
Cian McNamara shot an impressive 73 today in very testing conditions to stay in contention at Moyvalley. High winds hampered golfers all day with the later starters suffering the most. McNamara’s solid round means that he’s in 7th place and just four shots off the lead. David Higgins also carded a 73 and he’s in 12th place. David Barry had one of the best rounds of the afternoon, his two over par 74 has him on +1 for the tournament and in a tie for 15th place.
Cian McNamara followed up his good pro-am performance yesterday with an opening 69 at the first round of the PGA Irish Championship. It was a second successive 69 for the Monkstown professional, with birdies on the 12th, 15th and 16th. He had a steady round of 15 pars to go with the three birdies. Davey Barry is two shots back on -1. He’s tied for 12th place after a round that featured four birdies and three pars. The lead is held by Simon Thornton who is three clear of the field after an opening 69. The 106th staging of the Championship is being hosted by Moyvalley Hotel and Golf Resort.
Although the 2016 Championship year hasn’t been completed yet, Munster Golf have been busy planning dates and fixtures for 2017. Liam Harkin, Karen Walsh and Margaret Sugrue have been busy liaising with clubs to put together the calendar that will see close on twenty separate competitions take place in over 60 venues across the province. The 2017 season gets underway as usual with the Munster Youths – although the tournament will now be know as the Munster Student’s Championship. The competition takes place in Cork Golf Club in mid March. Cork clubs have stepped up this year in terms of availability, with Kinsale, Lee Valley, Kanturk, Blarney and Cork all confirmed as host venues.
Peter O’Keeffe has worked hard all year to win a senior scratch cup, and this weekend he won two. After shooting a winning 68 in Kinsale yesterday, O’Keeffe was back on course this morning in Castlemartyr. Starting early again, the Douglas man plotted his way around the Ron Kirby designed links and carved out a three under par 69.
