James Sugrue pictured with Irish Mens Captain John Carroll
2019 was a stellar year for Cork golfers. With seven Corkmen winning international caps, there were plenty of great performances among several notable individual wins. Just three years ago there wasn’t a single Cork golfer on the national mens squad, this year there were three golfers to reach that standard in what must be regarded as a great run for Cork golf. With three seniors, one boys and three mens representatives, it was an impressive number of caps. Top of the list of course was James Sugrue, the Amateur Champion. The Mallow man won the Castletroy Scratch Cup in May, but less than a month later his world would change with the win of a lifetime in Portmarnock. An Amateur Championship win seemed unlikely at a few stages during that week in Dublin. After just five holes on the first day of qualifying Sugrue branded the course as “insanely long”, and he found himself three down deep into the back nine in the second round of matchplay. In what was a marathon rather than a sprint, Sugrue played himself into form, thanks in equal parts to a new Titleist driver, solid advice from Neil Manchip and a hot putter. On that Saturday morning playing in the Amateur Championship final, few would have thought it was his seventh round of the week. He sprinted into a five up lead against Scotland’s Ewan Walker. Despite the impressive start, the final would prove to be another marathon lasting the full 36 holes. The Mallow man, watched by a record crowd of over 3,000 claimed the win on the final green, becoming the second Cork golfer after Jimmy Bruen to win the Amateur Championship. That win saw Sugrue’s schedule change, with an unplanned visit to Portrush for the Open championship taking priority in his calendar. James was very unlucky to miss the cut, a lost ball on the 14th on Friday cost him a place at the weekend when Shane Lowry created his own bit of history. Although injury hampered Sugrue towards the end of the season he had the honour of raising the Irish flag at the Walker Cup in Royal Liverpool in September.
Peter O’Keeffe
Peter O’Keeffe started the year off with a win, he came out on top in Muskerry in April winning their senior scratch cup. A five under par 66 gave O’Keeffe a good start and he was under par again in the second round to win the competition by two strokes. It was the second time that O’Keeffe won in Muskerry, his first coming 13 years ago in 2006. O’Keeffe was fifth in the East of Ireland and topped that by reaching the final of the North in July. Prior to the North he spent the week in Lahinch caddying for Robin Dawson in the Open. Peter finished second in the North of Ireland, which this year moved to Portstewart and Castlerock due Portrush staging the Open Championship. He lost out to Englishman Aaron Edwards Hill after a final that went to the 17th hole. The Douglas man was back in Lahinch later on in July, this time as a player in the South of Ireland. He started well, finishing in the top ten after the Strokeplay qualifier. He then Continue reading
The members of UCC Staff GS recently celebrated their 40th anniversary, marking the milestone with a golf and a social event in Cork Golf Club. A large number of members attended the celebrations, on the course Willie Weir, Collette Finn and Barry O’Brien won the three-ball scramble while many more joined the group that evening to make the anniversary. As everyone enjoyed the celebrations, there was also a reflection on the early days of the society. A conversation between the late Eric Tully and Robert Mc Namara led to the establishment of the UCC Staff Golf Society, which was first registered with the GUI in 1979. McNamara was instrumental in contacting staff members, who he knew were golfers, and encouraging them to form an inaugural committee. He recalls meeting in Eric Tully’s office in The Lee Maltings. Eric chaired the meeting, Robert was secretary and they were joined by Gary Prendeville, Chris Synnott and Paddy O’Regan. An outing to Mallow was agreed upon and Robert assembled the prizes with twelve golfers taking part in the first event. The original twelve were Robert Mc Namara, Eric Tully, Gary Prendeville, Chris Synnott, Paddy O’Regan, Diarmuid McCarthy, Joe O’Mahony, Cyril Deasy, Fr. Sean McGann, Eoin Shorten, Conor O’Brien and Mr McCullagh. From the small outing 
It may have taken three attempts but the 2019 staging of the Morgan O’Donovan Perpetual Trophy was completed on Monday, with Lahinch’s Donal McSweeney winning. Two earlier attempts to hold the event in Monkstown were rained off, and rather than cancel this year’s event the Munster PGA committee decided to hold the event in Castletroy which was part of the autumn run of winter series events. The Lahinch Head Professional had three birdies in his opening four holes in Castletroy giving him an excellent start. Two bogies on the 9th and 10th pegged him back but the Charleville native finished well to post a winning score of 54 stokes for his 14 holes. It was a north Cork 1-2 as Mark Collins from Charleville came in on one under thanks to four birdies and three pars. Ballyneety’s Walter Doyle was third on 56 (L) while there were six golfers tied on +1. Donal McSweeeny is the latest winner of the prestigious trophy, joining Damien McGrane, David Higgins and David Ryan who are among the previous winners. Morgan O’Donovan was a very popular PGA Professional who passed away in 2012. The event has been held since 2013 and is usually hosted by Monkstown Golf Club where Morgan was Club Professional.
McSweeney also won the team event, partnering with Walter Doyle, Jack Howard and Cian McNamara they carded ten birdies. Tim Rice, Eanna Jones, Padraig Dooley and Kevin McGrath were second with nine birdies. The event was kindly sponsored by Gary O’Flaherty from Cobra/Puma Golf.
This year proved to be another very positive one for Castlemartyr, now 11 years old, the golf course and the club are both thriving. A growing membership in the club underpins the progress in Castlemartyr and Breffne McKenna is happy to report an impressive scorecard for 2019. “Membership is doing great we are up to over 460 now. The club grew from 320 to 460 in 2019, very good growth and we are still open to membership applications at the moment” explained McKenna, the Director or Golf in Castlemartyr. “The Ladies Club continues to build slowly but it’s the Men’s and Intermediate Categories that are growing very fast (18-25). Alan Gleeson our resident PGA Professional has classes for new or interested parties who are looking to start golf and not too sure if they want to commit to membership. This is also great for the ladies who are not 100% sure they will like the game.”
Kinsale’s Eoghan Cassidy broke 70 in Ballybunion today as he took advantage of better weather conditions. The youngster shot a 69 which included five birdies after a double bogey on the fifth. Cassidy came home in 32 strokes thanks to three birdies in is last five holes. The impressive round, the second lowest of the day, saw him jump from 36th place up to 12th place. The teenager also found a sum of money on the course which he handed in to the tournament committee at the end of his round.
Cork Golf News 