Ada O’Sullivan
The AGM of the ILGU took place last weekend and it was a special occasion for Monkstown’s Ada O’Sullivan as she was awarded Honorary Life Membership by the national governing body. Ada has one of the most comprehensive records of any female golfer in Ireland. She represented Munster, as a member of the girls’ team in 1980 & 1981 and the Women’s Team from 1982 -1997, fifteen years. She was the first ever winner of the Girlie Hegarty Trophy in 1994. As a player she represented Ireland at the Girls’ Home Internationals in 1980 & 1981.
She then played on the Women’s Home International Team seven times between 1982 & 1997 and at the Women’s European Team Championships in 1993, 1994 and 1995. She was the winner of the Sherry Cup in 1994 (European Masters 72 hole stroke play). Following her playing career, Ada represented Ireland as Captain of the Girls’ Home International Team in 1999 & 2000 and the Under 21 Team at the European Championship in 2000. She would go on to become the first High Performance Director on the ILGU Board in 2010.
Her first experience of Captaining a GB&I Team was at The Espirito Santo Trophy in Malaysia in 2002. This preceded GB&I Captaincy in 2003 & 2005 when her Team brought home the Vagliano Trophy playing at Co. Louth. In 2004 and 2006 Ada was invited to be Captain of the GB&I Curtis Cup Teams. ILGU President Brigid McCaw was delighted to present Ada with the award on Saturday. “Ada is a very capable, strong, fun loving person who – when asked to take on a responsible task – takes it on with great enthusiasm and leaves no stone unturned to make it a success” said McCaw upon presenting her with Life Honorary Membership. “We are very proud of all our Honorary Life Members and Past Presidents. I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for being, as it were, “on call” and for their willingness to sharing their experiences and sound knowledge.” Life Membership was also Continue reading
Monkstown’s Ferghal Collins tees it up in the K Club this week, he’s the only Cork golfer to make it through to the inaugural finals of the All Ireland Gold medal. Collins is among the top 36 golfers, the finalists made it through to play on the famous Palmer Course in the K Club, the host course for the 2006 Ryder Cup. There were three stages to the event, which is a unique to the GUI calendar. It’s the only event that club golfers can participate at individual level in an all-Ireland GUI event. Spread across three different handicap categories, the competition was open to all club members with free entry for all affiliated golf clubs. To qualify for the new competition each club who entered nominated one of their singles competitions as a club qualifier. Entrants on the day competed in one of three handicap categories – 9 and below, 10-17 or 18 and over. The best nett score in each category qualified for the regional final. From there the three golfers progressed to the regional finals hosted by Cahir Park in August. Collins was one of the top three in his category (10-17) and qualified for the All Ireland final this week.
Monkstown Golf Club are hosting a unique challenge on Saturday, two golfers will try and complete 180 holes in one day. Monkstown’s Club Professional Cian McNamara and General Manager Brian Hurley have set themselves the challenge to play ten rounds of golf in one day. Playing under the rules of golf, and counting both scores, the pair will be walking the course adding to the difficulty of the task. Starting at 4.30am on Saturday morning (28 minutes before dawn!), the challenge is expected to last well into the evening, and with no guarantee of success the two PGA Professionals will have a long day ahead of them on Saturday. The only other similar feat in Cork was completed by Lee Valley’s Denis O’Brien who completed seven rounds at the Clashnure course in Ovens well over a decade ago.