Irwin looking forward to 2022

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Monkstown PGA Professional Shane Irwin.
Picture: Niall O’Shea

For the first time since qualifying as a PGA Professional, Monkstown’s Shane Irwin is looking forward to a normal season.  The Limerick native traded in his hurley for a golf clubs a few years back and started his PGA training.  Irwin completed his PGA studies in 2020 but the past two years were interrupted with several lockdowns.  Like plenty of others in golf, he thinks 2022 will be a bumper year for the sport and he has already seen a big increase in the numbers out golfing.

PGA Professional Shane Irwin pictured at the Trackman fitting studio at Monkstown Golf Club.
Picture: Niall O’Shea

“The winter was much busier than previous years due to not having any sort of lockdowns compared to previous years” explained Irwin.  “In the first few months we had fantastic weather which got a lot of golfers out onto the course.  It really was our first proper winter using the Trackman studio with lessons and custom fitting.  The main areas I think golfers are working on this for this part of the year in particularis the short game and putting.  Indoor facilities like this, especially in the cold winter months,  gives a  golfer important putting and swing analysis along with video technology.  After each lesson we can also send a video summary to each golfers which includes some drills to work on.”

Irwin has been based in Monkstown for just over five years.  In that time he has completed his PGA studies, qualifying in 2020.  Monkstown is now home to three PGA Professionals with Cian McNamara leading the team.  While Cian and Shane are from Limerick, there was a Corkman added to the team recently.  Shane Livesey joined from Douglas last month, and just last week he completed his PGA studies to become a fully qualified PGA Professional.  With three teaching pro’s, access to facilities is key and Irwin is delighted with facilities available to members and guests.

PGA Professional Shane Irwin practicing his putting at the Trackman fitting studio at Monkstown Golf Club. Pic: Niall O’Shea

“We’re looking forward to the club opening the new short game facility.  It will be a great addition to the already fantastic work been done by the club and it will benefit the club teams, Juniors and Members short games massively.  Once the short game area opens in May we will be providing a service with short game demo days featuring the leading brands to test and compare wedges and putters for players.”

While Shane is part of the pro shop team, he’s delighted to be part of the wider team that Continue reading →

Putting for Dough at Cork Golf Centre

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PGA Advanced Professional Wayne O’Callaghan who is based at Cork Golf Centre.
Picture: Niall O’Shea

If you ask golfers how many putts they take in a round they’ll probably have a rough idea of the number.  But if you asked them for the percentage very few would think it’s over 40% of the shots in an average round.  Wayne O’Callaghan has been building a reputation as a leading putting coach, and his new performance studio in Cork Golf Centre is designed to provide golfers with cutting edge technology to improve their putting.

Wayne, a PGA Advanced Professional recently invested in the latest putting analysis technology, the Sam Puttstudio.  Wayne has used the Science & Motion puttlab for a number of years, and he recently upgraded to the studio version which provides ball tracking and video projection.  Golfers and the instructor can now see the putt line thanks to the Continue reading →

Ryan wins PGA Southern Championship

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Monkstown Captain Donal Delaney presenting the PGA Southern Championship trophy to David Ryan (East Cork GC) after his win last week.

David Ryan picked up the first bit of silverware in the PGA season last week.  The East Cork Club Pro won the Irish PGA Southern Championship in Monkstown, beating an impressive field.  Ryan went around in 66 strokes and took the title by a single stroke.  “It was great to win last week said David, “it just goes to show there’s life in the old dog yet and it was nice to have East Cork GC after the name up in lights.”  Ryan is well used to winning on the Irish PGA circuit and he has racked up a number of wins in Monkstown, as well as previously winning the Southern Championship.

“I won the same event in Powerscourt in 2012 shooting the same score.  As for Monkstown golf club I love playing up there always have. It’s the type of course that suits my game.  It’s not the longest but you have to think your away around.  I’ve had a bit of success in Monkstown.  I’ve won the pro-am and also the Morgan O’Donovan event which was a nice one to win as Morgan was one Continue reading →

€800k for Cork Clubs

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Kanturk Golf Club was one of 12 Cork clubs to receive a Sports Capital Programme grant last week. Picture: Niall O’Shea

A dozen Cork golf clubs celebrated last week as they were successful in the most recent round of Sports Capital Programme grants.  Over €830,000 was allocated to twelve clubs across the county, and they will now look forward to investing the funds to improve their course and facilities.

Kanturk, Mallow, Kinsale and Doneraile all received grants of more than €100,000 while another eight shared funds from €14,000 to €90,000.  While golf clubs have received sports capital funding in the past, the recent announcement is by far the biggest on an individual and collective Continue reading →

Early start to the season for Cork golfers

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Fota Island’s John Doyle receiving the Munster U14 Order of Merit medal from Jim Long, also included is John’s Dad Barry.

It might still be the off-season for golf in Ireland but there are a few Cork golfers have already started their 2022 campaigns.  John Murphy competed in his fourth tournament of the new season in South Africa last week.  Murphy has had a busy start to the year, after a few weeks of preseason work in Spain he travelled to California for the AT&T ProAm in Pebble Beach.  Unfortunately for John he missed the cut but it was a big learning experience for him as he teed it up alongside the stars of the PGA Tour.  From there it was a sprint across the Atlantic to South Africa for the start of the Challenge Tour.  He finished just inside the top fifty in his opening event three weeks ago, and after missing the cut in the second event he went on to secure a top twenty finish in Durban last week.  Murphy has picked up close to €5,000 in prize money this season and he’ll be hoping for another good finish this week.

Murphy clocked up over €120,000 in his thirteen tour events last year after turning professional in June.  It was a sprint for the Kinsale man over the course of five months.  He played in nine different countries on three separate tours, but most importantly he finished inside the top 70 and Continue reading →

Fitting the Key to Better Golf

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PGA Professional Padraig Dooley.
Picture: Niall O’Shea

It’s that time of year, the manufacturers have released their new golf clubs and the dazzling marketing claims and new terminology are tempting golfers to change.  Speed optimised, jailbreak speed frame, carbonwood, rebound frame and zero CG are some of the buzzwords doing the rounds this year as the manufacturers do their best to convince golfers to upgrade.  While the technology continues to improve, the price also increases with new drivers now averaging over €500 in the premium space and iron sets even more expensive.  For many club golfers a new set of clubs might cost more than their annual subscription.  While many golfers will buy off the shelf, an increasing number are choosing custom fitting.

Padraig Dooley is a PGA professional and for well over a decade he has been building up a large base of customers who Continue reading →

2022 Inter-Club Plans

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Inter-Club events are again set to be a key centre-point of the Golf Ireland calendar and a recently issued guidance document spells out some of the key features of the 2023 events.  One change in Munster will see the split of home and away matches be removed and instead one team will have the home advantage for all matches.  In 2020 a home and away arrangement was put in place, this was brought about due to the shortened season due to covid, and the need to move away from the traditional weekend events due to course availability.  This was continued last year with all matches including the area finals being split on a home and away basis.  Club surveys carried out last November saw almost two thirds of respondents in Munster favouring all matches being played at one venue.  Munster was the Continue reading →

Golf for Everyone, Golf Ireland’s new strategic plan

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Just a year after golf’s new governing body came into being, Golf Ireland this week launched an ambitious five-year plan to build on the success of the sport over the past two years.

Golf was one of a number of sports to see a big increase in participation during the pandemic.  Although courses were closed at three different stages through 2020 and 2021, the sport added over 20,000 registered players.  That increase reversed a decade of dropping numbers and there are over 200,000 Golf Ireland members with golf making as the fourth highest sport in terms of participation in Ireland.  Overall it’s thought that there are over 500,000 people who play golf once a year, and the governing body will be hoping Continue reading →

PGA Tour Debut for John Murphy

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John Murphy.  Picture: Niall O’Shea

It’s a big week for Kinsale’s John Murphy as he makes his debut on the PGA Tour at Pebble Beach.  It’s an exciting start to Murphy’s 2022 schedule, and it came thanks to a chance meeting when he was practicing in Florida in December.  He was advised to contact the AT&T Tournament Director with a letter of request and Murphy was delighted to hear back from Steve John.  “Thankfully the Tournament Director was generous enough to accept the request, he sent me a text shortly after to confirm I was i.  It’s very exciting, especially as it’s something I didn’t really expect.  It’s a great opportunity to have and I’m looking forward to trying to make the most of it.”

Murphy along with caddy Shane O’Connell travelled to California last week and the pair settled into their tournament routine.  “Since we’ve got here the prep has been very good, the weather has been great” said Shane.  Continue reading →

Carroll fighting fit in California

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Mike Carroll pictured at the American Express PGA Tour event last week.

It’s a long way from Mahon Golf Course to La Quinta California but that’s the journey that Cork’s Mike Carroll has taken.  Carroll is one of a small number of full-time golf fitness professionals, and he’s built a training business that supports all levels for golfers from beginners to veterans to tour professionals.  After studying in Limerick he moved back to Cork in 2014 where he started Fit for Golf Cork.  But by 2016 he was on the move to the US to take up a job with Mike Hansen, one of the early leaders in the area of golf fitness.  Mike worked with Hansen Fitness for Golf for 4 years and in 2021 he set out on his own and drive his own business forward.  Carroll has quickly become one of the key players in this specialist area.

“2021 was a very important year for me as I left Hansen Fitness For Golf, the company which I came over here to work for in 2016, and went full time with the Fit For Golf App.  Being able to commit fully to Fit for Golf really helped progress things.”  And the results were clear for Mike as subscriber numbers grew.  “I have been extremely happy with the growth of the app. There are currently close to 5,000 subscribers, with a huge range of countries, ages, Continue reading →