Cork Golf

Busy 2024 Ahead for Golfers

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Douglas will host the final stages of the AIG Senior Cup in June

It might be early January but many amateur golfers will be planning their calendars for the year ahead.  The Golf Ireland 2024 championship calendar kicks off inMarch but the first event to take place in Cork will be the Cork Women’s Scratch Cup on the 27th April. A week later the Munster Men’s Open takes place in Cork on its now traditional May bank holiday weekend date.  Later in May Kinsale will host the Munster Men’s Seniors.  Muskerry will host the Munster Boys and Munster Girls in early July with a close qualifier for boys taking place in the same venue a week earlier.

One the national calendar, the South of Ireland retains its place in calendar in late July and Lahinch will be looking forward to the Palmer Cup which it also hosts earlier in July.  The West of Ireland takes place in Sligo over Easter and six weeks later it will host the Flogas Irish Amateur Open.  The Women’s Irish Open takes place in Woodbrook in June.  Roscommon will host the Women’s and Girls Irish Close while the Men’s Irish Close takes place in Dun Laoghaire in mid August.

Changes to the structure of the inter-club competitions were announced in November and Golf Ireland recently revealed the dates and venues for the final stages of the national and new regional competitions.  Douglas and Kanturk will host the last 16 stages for the AIG Senior Cup, that takes place in late June.  Bandon and Youghal will host the Munster Boys inter-club qualifiers also in June while Cork will be a busy place a few weeks later.  They will host the later stage of the regional matches of the Senior Foursomes, Minor Foursomes, Jimmy Bruen and the Fred Perry Trophy.  The AIG Barton Shield finals will take place in Fota Island in late July.  Fota Island will also host the Munster Inter-Club Women’s trophy that weekend.

Monkstown hosted both regional and national events last year and this year they will host the Fred Daly and Continue reading →

Join TopDog Golfer’s first event this weekend

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A brand new type of golf competition has entered the Irish market and the first event takes place this weekend.  Unlike other competitions, this event will take place at courses across the country as it allows you to play on your home course.

TopDog Golfer is Cork’s newest golf brand, and the company recently launched their app which allows golfers to run fun competitions with friends.  The app provides a live leaderboard and as well as running competitions over a single course, it also provides multi-course games.

TopDog Golfer in association with McGuirks Golf are running an exciting launch event this weekend. This weekend’s competition is a multi-course competition open to club golfers playing in their own club competition or in an open event.  You simply enter the event through the TopDog Golfer app and record your scores in addition to your club scorecard.  The competition is being held over Saturday and Sunday and a large number of prizes are on offer.

Entry to the event is just €5 and a live leaderboard is available on the TopDog Golfer app.  Prizes are based on categories 1,2 & 3+ meaning everyone has a chance of winning.  The event is being run in association with McGuirks Golf.  To enter, you can download the app here.

The TopDog Golfer app has been in testing for the past few months with several Cork golfers already using the app to record scores and have a friendly wager on outings.  The app provides a live leaderboard function, keeping everyone in the know as the event progresses.  As well as being used by groups of friends, it’s also an ideal resource for societies, corporates and classic organisers add an extra element of fun to their day.

The work in Lee Valley Continues

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Lee Valley Golf Club.
Picture: Niall O’Shea

Off the course, 2021 has been a nightmare for golf courses with no play in the first three months of the year.  On the course, the closure given owners and managers a chance to get lots of work done, and that’s certainly been the case in Lee Valley where there have been plenty of changes.  With the staff covering the normal tasks of cutting a lot quicker when there’s no golfers on the course, the team have been able to get at some of the jobs that a lower down the priority list, as well as those tricky jobs that mean closing holes for days or weeks.  New bunkers, new tee boxes, drainage Continue reading →

Golf is getting back to normal

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Golf is getting back to normal, there are plenty of golfers back on the courses in Cork although it’s a bit slower than many golfers would like.  Since Monday 8th June the sport entered the second phase of the return to play protocol which has been developed by the ILGU and GUI.  Both bodies have been proactive in getting golfers back on the course, golf was one of the first sports to be allowed to reopen.  Last week should have seen two major developments, the extension of the travel limit to 20km and the return of competitions.  While the travel limit was extended to the full county, competitions unfortunat Continue reading →

Ryan wins in Youghal – Munster PGA

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Simon Keelan (Monkstown), Ger Brooderick (Kinsale) and Davey Barry (Douglas) pictured at the Munster PGA Captain's Prize at Youghal Golf Club. Picture: Niall O'Shea

Simon Keelan (Monkstown), Ger Brooderick (Kinsale) and Davey Barry (Douglas) pictured at the Munster PGA Captain’s Prize at Youghal Golf Club.
Picture: Niall O’Shea

Cahir Park’s David Ryan won his second event in the PGB Munster Winter Series as he won the Captain’s Prize in Youghal.  Ryan shot a winning one under par 70.  He held off a trio from Kerry as Danny Sugrue (Killarney), David Higgins (Waterville) and Liam Higgins (Waterville) all finished with 71.  Christian Porter (Halpenny Golf) was fifth with a 72 and Cian McNamara (Monkstown) was next best with a 73.  Although it was an impressive performance from Ryan, the story of the day was the second placed finish by Liam Higgins.  The veteran from Waterville shot a 71, bettering his age by one at the Taylormade sponsored event.  In a nice touch Liam told his assembled peers that Youghal was the first club he joined in 1963. Continue reading →

Skibbereen Offer for New Golfers

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Skibbereen & West Carbery Golf Club have launched a new membership scheme which should prove very attractive to many of Cork’s golfers.  They are set to take advantage of a new handicapping rule, they have just launched an innovative club membership scheme with an annual cost of just €175.  New rules which come in from the 1st March mean that golfers can only play in qualifying competitions outside of their home club only if they have three qualifying rounds in their home club in the previous 12 months.  This has the potential to disrupt many of those golfers who hold distance memberships in clubs outside Cork, especially those who play most of their golf in local open competitions while not playing in their home course.  The €175 membership option includes three rounds of golf to comply with the handicapping rules.  Continue reading →