JOhn Murphy

ProShop Challenge raises €30k

/ niall@corkgolfnews.com

Kinsale’s Pro Shop Challenge takes place today, and the even has raised almost €30,000 for two Cork charities.  A large crowd is expected in Kinsale this afternoon for the skins match that will see John Murphy and Rory Best take on Kinsale PGA Professionals Ger Broderick and Ian Stafford.

ARC House and Breakthrough Cancer Research are the beneficiaries of this years event and organiser Ian Stafford is thrilled with the response so far.  “We absolutely delighted with the total of €28,000 so far.  Our initial hopes going into this was that we could match what me made from the previous four events which was around €15,000 so to nearly double Continue reading →

Strong Season finish for Sara Byrne

/ niall@corkgolfnews.com

Sara Byrne (Douglas) in action in the AIG Irish Womens Close in 2022.
Picture: Niall O’Shea

Sara Byrne wrapped up her third year in the US with a solid performance at the NCAA National Championship.  Sara was one of nine individual golfers who qualified for the finals in Greyhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale Arizona.  She booked a place in the finals thanks to a second place finish in the Palm Beach Regional which should have been her final event of the college schedule.  Byrne was just the second Cork golfer to make it to the NCAA finals, John Murphy played with Louisville in 2019 and again in 2021 in his senior year.  It’s been another very positive season for the Douglas golfer, she recorded three top tens in the very competitive ACC conference and the third year led the Miami Hurricanes on a number of occasions.  She played in 37 competitive rounds this year and had an impressive stroke average of 72.9, an improvement of over Continue reading →

Cork golfers into the swing of the action in Europe and Egypt

/ niall@corkgolfnews.com

John Murphy

THE stretch in the evenings is now clear to see for all golfers and now that we’re into March golf courses around Cork are much busier. 

The ground has also firmed up and thoughts are turning to qualifying competitions and championships which will get underway later this month. There are a large number of tournaments and events scheduled to take place in Cork over the next eight months, and the first event on the schedule is the Cork Women’s Scratch Cup which takes place in Cork Golf Club on Saturday week. Continue reading →

Early Season Action for 2023

/ niall@corkgolfnews.com

James Sugrue and Rob Brazill pictured during the 2022 Irish Challenge at the Palmer South course at the K Club.  Pic: Niall O’Shea

The stretch in the evenings is now clear to see for all golfers and now that we’re into March golf courses around Cork are much busier.  The ground has also firmed up and thoughts are turning to qualifying competitions and championships which will get underway later this month.  There are a large numbers tournaments and events scheduled to take place in Cork over the next eight months, and the first event on the schedule is the Cork Women’s Scratch Cup which takes place in Cork Golf Club on Saturday 11th March.

In April Monkstown will host the Munster Women’s Senior and Junior Championships and at the end of April the Munster Men’s Amateur Open will be hosted by Cork.  This is the new name for the Munster Strokeplay which incorporates the Cork Scratch Cup, the oldest scratch cup in the Country.  This year marks the centenary of the Cork Scratch Cup and in a nod to the original format, a match play Continue reading →

Karl Bornemann leads the way in Senior Cup Alliance

/ niall@corkgolfnews.com

Kerl Bornemann
Picture: Niall O’Shea

The final event of the Senior Cup Winter Alliance took place at Douglas Golf Club on Saturday, and home favorite Karl Bornemann was out of the blocks quickly shooting are very impressive 5 under par for the 12 hole competition.

Monkstown’s Nick Moore took second place just one shot behind the winner with James Walsh and Colin McGuire and Zac Collins from Muskerry all finishing on three under.  Ronan O’Keefe, JP Barry, Donal McDonnell, Paddy Quill and Jack Murphy rounded out the top 10, all finishing on two under par.

It was a clean sweep for Douglas when it came to the overall order of merit where the best three scores counted.  James Walsh took the overall series prize, narrowly beating Karl Bornemann with Jack Murphy in 3rd place.  Walsh got the series off to a fine start when he won in Muskerry on the opening day of the series. Sean Desmond had home win in Monkstown at the second event and Peter O’Keeffe was the winner Cork Continue reading →

Shane O’Connell enjoying life on Tour

/ niall@corkgolfnews.com

Shane O’Connell

Shane O’Connell is enjoying a well earned break, the Kinsale man travelled more than most in 2022.  Caddying with John Murphy, the 25 year old visited 15 different countries in 2022.  That involved two trips to the US, and another two to  South Africa.  He was on the bag for Murphy in all 34 events this year, and was there to celebrate with him when he qualified for the DP World Tour in November.

Shane jumped on the bag for Murphy in June 2021 when the Walker Cup star turned professional and he hasn’t looked back since.  Travel is a central part of tour life and Shane has had to navigate air travel, hotels and rental cars ever before they get to a golf Continue reading →

Early start to the season for Cork golfers

/ niall@corkgolfnews.com

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 →

PGA Tour Debut for John Murphy

/ niall@corkgolfnews.com

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 →

Cork’s Top Amateurs (Men)

/ niall@corkgolfnews.com

So how do you start to build a ranking of Cork’s top men’s golfers over the past 100 years?

Rankings and lists are always subjective, and I’m sure many people will have their own opinions on the list as they work their way through it.  Rankings always come down to points, and allocating points for Continue reading →