Later this month Kinsale will host the second edition of their Pro-Shop Challenge.  Following a successful staging last year, Kinsale immediately decided that the event would have to be repeated.  The event will see a re-match between Kinsale’s PGA Professionals Ger Broderick and Ian Stafford and Kinsale’s elite amateurs Cathal Butler and John Murphy.  Last year the event raised over €3,000 for local Special Olympics clubs and this year the organisers are hoping to raise a similar amount for Marymount.  Kinsale’s Ian Stafford came up with the idea after his nephew asked him to help out with fundraising for a team to go to the Special Olympic World Winter Games.  It was also a novel opportunity for the PGA professionals to take on the two amateurs who had come up through the coaching structures in Kinsale Golf Club.  Both Butler and Murphy have moved into the senior ranks now but they started golfing through the progressive coaching programmes that were set up by Kinsale and delivered by Ger and Ian.

Gallery: Kinsale Pro Shop Challenge 2016

While the idea immediately sparked a large amount of interest, the Pro’s then had the daunting task of taking on Butler and Murphy.  Between them, the amateurs had won six events that season and both went to be named on Munster and Irish panels.  Stafford and Broderick have Continue reading →