McNamara 4th after Round 1 of PGA Irish Championship

/ niall@corkgolfnews.com

Golf_Cian McNamara_Jun2014Cian 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.

Cork interest is high with several golfers in line to make the cut.  Ciaran McKenna is inside the top 30 on +2, and Conor Coyne is one behind on +3.  Padraig Dooley, David Ryan, Stephen Hayes and Ronan Collins have some work to do to ensure they make the cut.  Dooley, Hayes and Ryan are inside Continue reading →

McNamara 2nd in Irish PGA Pro-Am, leads Cork hopefuls in 106th Irish PGA

/ niall@corkgolfnews.com
Cian McNamara

Cian McNamara (Monkstown GC)

Monkstown’s Cian McNamara shot a three under par 69 today to finish in second place at the Christy O’Connor Pro-Am.  McNamara was one shot off the pace set by winner Jimmy Bolger.  The pro-am is the curtain-raiser for the 106th staging of the Irish PGA Championship which starts tomorrow at Moyvalley.  The showpiece PGA event is a 72 hole competition with Niall Kearney looking to win his third title in a row.  There’s a lot of Cork interest with McNamara being joined by Stephen Hayes, Ronan Collins, Davey Barry, Ciaran McKenna, Peter Hickey, Padraig Dooley and David Ryan.

106th PGA Irish Championship Leaderboard

East Cork duo Don McFarlane and amateur partner Darren Burns will contest the final of the Lombard Trophy in Vilamoura tomorrow.  The first of two rounds gets underway tomorrow and hopes will be high that the Irish representatives can do well in the pro-am field of 14 qualifiers from the UK and Ireland.

Lombard Trophy Final Leaderboard

Smartphones Direct

Munster Golf Calendar almost complete for 2017

/ niall@corkgolfnews.com
Munster Golf LogoAlthough 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.
The Cups and Shields finals are heading for Kerry, Killarney will host the Bruen and Purcell finals in July and Tralee’s Barrow links will host the Junior, Senior and Barton finals in August.  Monkstown will host the Irish Mixed Foursomes while Dunmore is hosting the Country Clubs.

Continue reading →

Two Cups in Two Days – O’Keeffe is the form golfer, Castlemartyr Senior Scratch Cup

/ niall@corkgolfnews.com

peter-okeeffe-munsterPeter 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.

And O’Keeffe repeated another thing this morning that he did yesterday.  He lost a ball on the opening hole and took a double bogey.  The Munster golfer’s tee shot found the heavy rough and the ball was lost.  Like yesterday he recovered and added three pars before getting his first birdies on the 5th.  He also birdied the par five 8th to gt back to level par before parring the 9th.  O’Keeffe went under par following a birdie on the 11th but couldn’t do better than that as he parred the next five holes where at least a birdie or two might have been expected.  He capitalised on the closing holes however.  He chipped in on the 17th after missing the green, and on the last hole he hit a nine iron from 175 yards to ten feet.  He made the putt to sign for a winning 69.

Dave O’Donovan (Muskerry) took second place with a 73 and Kinsale’s Cathal Butler was third with a 74.  Mallow’s James Sugrue was fourth with 75 and Michael Lenihan won the best nett prize.

 

O’Driscoll secures top 25 finish on Alps Tour

/ niall@corkgolfnews.com
Golf_Tommy O'Driscoll_2

Tommy O’Driscoll 

West Cork’s Tommy O’Driscoll has had two good weeks on the Alps Tour, and today he closed with a 66 to finish in the top 25 at the Alps Costa Del Sol tournament.  O’Driscoll had seven birdies in his final round which included coming home in 32 strokes at the Lauro Golf Resort.  O’Driscoll’s six under par final round brought the Paris based professional back onto -1 for the tournament.  This week’s performance follows his 34th place finish last week at the Citadelle Trophy in France.  O’Driscoll has one more regular season event next month before the season ending Grand Final.  The current run of form is a major boost for the rookie professional who turned pro earlier this year after winning a full card on the Alps Tour.  The Cork native is based in the ClementAder Resort outside Paris.

Alps Costa del Sol – Final Scoreboard

Smartphones Direct

O’Keeffe Wins Kinsale Senior Scratch Cup, Murphy helps Ireland to European Boys Team Title

/ niall@corkgolfnews.com
Interpros 2016 Peter O'Keeffe

Peter O’Keeffe (Douglas) 

Peter O’Keeffe won the Kinsale Senior Scratch Cup today with a four under pat 68.  O’Keeffe recovered after an interesting start, he put a three iron out of bounds on the first tee which meant he walked onto the second hole on +2.  He recovered however and started racking up the birdies.  He went under par on the 3rd, 6th and 8th before dropping a shot on the 9th.  O’Keeffe added four birdies and five pars on the back nine to set the clubhouse lead on -4.  The round could have been better, O’Keeffe missed a birdie putt on the 17th and an eagle putt on the 18th.  Still it was enough to give the Douglas and Munster golfer his first scratch cup of the year.  Kinsale’s Keith Fitzpatrick also finished with a 68 but had to settle for second place with O’Keeffe beating him on the back nine.  Cork’s John Hickey finished in third place.  Many of the golfers today will be in action again tomorrow in the Continue reading →

Mahon face Lahinch in Fred Daly Plate Final

/ niall@corkgolfnews.com

Munster Golf LogoMahon will head to Ballyneety Golf Club tomorrow to take on Lahinch in the final of the the Fred Daly Plate.  The Munster competition was launched last year and all first round losers from the Fred Daly Trophy are entered.

Mahon beat Bandon in the first round and went on to beat Monkstown in the second round.  After that the saw off Douglas before beating West Waterford in the semi-final.  Tomorrow’s final starts at 11.30am.

Mahon Fred Daly Plate Panel:
James Daly
Donagh Gribbon
Eoghan O’Shea
Sean Foley
Cathal Browne
Conor Twomey
Colm Kennedy
Team Manager: Ian Bermingham

Muskerry and Monkstown name strong teams for AIG semi-finals

/ niall@corkgolfnews.com

Muskerry and Monkstown have both stuck with the same players who won Munster titles as they go into battle in the AIG Cups and Shields finals this morning.  Monkstown are just about to start (8am) with Muskerry taking to the course at 12.30.

Updates throughout the day available on Twitter @CorkGolfNews

Long Read: Monkstown and Muskerry on All-Ireland Trail

 

AIG SENIOR CUP (semi-final) – Live Scoring
0800 Monkstown v Co Sligo (matches at 9-minute intervals)Dwyers Advert

Sean Desmond v David Brady
Donal McDonnell Jnr v Declan Reidy
Nick Moore v Ruairi O’Connor
Martin Poucher v TJ Ford
Eoghan Long v Mark Morrissey

AIG Jimmy Bruen Shield (semi-final) – Live Scoring
1230 Muskerry v Cill Dara (matches at 9-minute intervals)

Andrew Gray & Tony Gardiner v Ray Mackey & Christopher Harhen
Sean Geary & Gary Lucas v James Dunne & Ciaran Ryan
Paul Herlihy & Fionn Hickey v Tom Friary & Pat Garry
Fergal Murphy & Michael O’Brien v David Fox & Declan Plunkett
Michael O’Callaghan & Jack Taylor v Patrick Hopkins & Christy Roche

Long Read: Monkstown and Muskerry on All-Ireland Trail

/ niall@corkgolfnews.com

 

AIG Senior Cup Munster Finals, Cork Golf Club, Saturday13th August 2016Monkstown and Muskerry travel to Carton House this week to play in Europe’s biggest golf competition and both have hopes of returning with an All-Ireland title.  Both clubs face All-Ireland semi-finals on Friday morning.  Muskerry are in action in the AIG Jimmy Bruen Shield while Monkstown aim to win their first AIG Senior Cup title.  Both clubs have been busy preparing, on and off the course.  The cost of sending a team to compete in Carton House quickly runs into five figures when you take into account all of the costs associated.  Despite the costs, it’s a great opportunity for both clubs and one which all of their members are looking forward to.  Monkstown Captain Carl Toal has been involved in several teams himself and he has been busy over the past three weeks.  “The Club is on a high since winning the AIG Senior Cup Munster final in Cork Golf Club last month, it was a fantastic achievement to win after coming so close last year in Dungarvan” said the Captain who went on to explain the plan that was put into operation, “Winning the Munster final inevitably Continue reading →

Murphy leads Ireland to top spot in European Boys qualifying

/ niall@corkgolfnews.com

John Murphy April 2016John Murphy eagled his second last hole of the day today to jump into the lead after two rounds of strokeplay qualifying at the European Boys Team Championships in Czech Republic.  After opening with a bogey, John added two birdies to turn on -1.   He played steady par golf all the way back until a great eagle on the par five 17th saw him move to -3 and jump into the lead.  It was another good day for Ireland as they took four of the first five spots, and finished 23 shots ahead of second placed.

Murphy’s second round 69 followed a level par opening round and his two rounds will put him in good stead for tomorrow’s opening matchplay phase.  Ireland face Switzerland in the morning with second place Iceland facing Slovakia in the other semi-final.

The winner and runner-up teams of Divison 2 will be promoted to the European Boys’ Team Championship, which will be played at La Manga Club, Spain, in 2017.  Murphy will partner Kilkenny’s Mark Power  in the first of the two foursomes pairs, and the afternoon will see five singles matches being played to decide who goes trough to the semi-final.

In Flight B, Estonia Continue reading →