Peter O’Keeffe

O’Keeffe leads the way in Moortown

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Home Internationals 2017

Peter O’Keeffe and Robin Dawson (Ireland) on the 4th tee during Day 2 Foursomes of the Home Internationals at Moortown Golf Club, Leeds, England. 17/08/2017
Picture: Golffile | Thos Caffrey 

There were mixed results for the Cork golfers in action in England and at home today.  Peter O’Keeffe recorded two wins today at the Mens Home Internationals, while Valerie Clancy won her first round match in the British Girls but lost in this afternoon’s second round.

It was a good day for Ireland at the Home Internationals in Moortown today.  Peter O’Keeffe combined well with Robin Dawson this morning to win an important foursomes match against Scotland.  The pair had lost yesterday so this morning’s result was a boost and came as part of a 4-1 win in the morning session.  He followed up this afternoon with another win in the singles.  O’Keeffe was one down at the turn but mounted a comeback and was two up after 12 holes.  He closed out his match on the 16th with a 4&2 win over Scotland’s Sam Locke.  Ireland now have a great chance to create history tomorrow, a winner takes all match with England give’s Ireland the chance to win the title for the fourth straight year.

Valerie Clancy was the only Cork girl to make it through to the matchplay stage of the British Girls.  Clancy made it though on the cut mark (+8) after the 36 hole qualifier and she won her first round match this morning, beating Celilie Nielsen 3&2.  She lost out this afternoon though, losing 2&1 to Mayka Hoogeboom.  Rachel Thompson and Continue reading →

Hickey takes top ten spot in Mullingar

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John Hickey pictured during the Lee Valley Senior Scratch Cup.

John Hickey pictured during the Lee Valley Senior Scratch Cup.

Cork’s John Hickey was the best placed Cork golfer at Mullingar over the weekend.  Stuart Grehan won the prestigious title with a wire to wire win following two 67’s which saw him hit the halfway point on -10.

An opening 79 on Sunday morning hampered Hickey, and that return featured two triple bogies on his front nine.  Hickey recovered with a one under par 71 on Sunday afternoon and another two 71’s followed on Monday.  That saw him rise up the leaderboard and eventually finished in 9th place.  Hickey will be a key member of the Cork team that will be aiming to retain their AIG Barton Shield Munster title in Tralee this weekend.

Peter O’Keeffe (74/75/74/73) was just inside the top twenty (18th), O’Keeffe is currently preparing for his Irish Senior debut in Moortown next week.  James Sugrue and John Murphy both were tied for 24th place, that was likely to be Murphy’s last competitive event in Ireland as he’s moving to Kentucky next week to take up his place with Aaron O’Callaghan’s University of Louisville golf programme.  Kinsale duo Gary Ward (T37) and Cathal Butler (T41) both made the cut but Mallow’s Conor Dowling missed the cut for the final day.

O’Keeffe finally gets his Irish Cap

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Douglas Golf Club Reception for Peter O'Keeffe, Irish Amateur Open Champion 2017. Wednesday 17th May2017Peter O’Keeffe was today named on the Irish Mens team to play in the Home Internationals.  O’Keeffe narrowly missed out on selection 10 years ago when he was competing at elite amateur level, and now he’s finally ticked that box.  The Douglas golfer was added to the international mens panel after winning the Flogas Irish Amateur Open, and he followed that win with some solid performances through the months of June and July.  Last week he finished as a semi-finalist in the South of Ireland, and many felt that would be more than enough to get the call up for August.  For O’Keeffe its marks the achievement of a key long term goal, and it’s also a target he set himself.  “I decided at the end of last year that I was going to work my ass off to make the Irish team” said O’Keeffe after the announcement of the team.  “I’m delighted to achieve it now.  I’m looking forward to preparing for the home internationals so I can have a great performance.”  O’Keeffe put a huge amount of work into Continue reading →

O’Keeffe and Sugrue set for South Showdown, South of Ireland Day 4

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Douglas Golf Club Reception for Peter O'Keeffe, Irish Amateur Open Champion 2017. Wednesday 17th May2017Today started with five Cork golfers still in contention in Lahinch, however as play came to a close that was reduced to just two.  The draw meant that there were two all-Cork clashes this morning, and one more this afternoon.  Tomorrow will see another all-Cork match with Peter O’Keeffe taking on James Sugrue.

Peter O’Keeffe marched on to the semi-final of the South of Ireland today, the Irish Open Champion was up against Cathal Butler this morning and beat the Kinsale man on the 17th.  This afternoon he was up against Robbie Cannon and again closed out the match on the 17th.  O’Keeffe has surely done enough at this stage to secure his place on the Home International side, he’ll be hoping to go further and become the first Cork man to win the South since Mervyn Owens.  James Sugrue will be having similar ideas after his two wins today.

James Sugrue was up against Gary O’Flaherty in the other Cork match, Sugrue won that contest on the 16th green.  Sugrue faced John Murphy in the quarter-final after Murphy beat Colm Campbell on the 19th.  This morning Murphy was three down but birdied the 12th, 13th and 14th to level the match.  He had a putt to win on the 18th but the ball refused to drop while resting on the lip.  He made no mistake on the 19th however and booked his place in the final eight.  On paper, Murphy probably had a slight edge over Sugrue, but it was the Mallow man who won.  It was a tight match all the way through with Sugrue one ahead for a few holes on the back nine.  Sugrue stretched that the two holes when he won the 16th, giving him the upper hand.  A half on the 17th was enough to see Sugrue go through to the semi-final.

In the other semi-final Conor O’Rourke will take on West of Ireland winner Barry Anderson.  O’Rourke had a marathon 27 hole match this morning to get past Thomas Mulligan and was taken to the 18th this afternoon by leading qualifier Lester Rowan.  Play in Lahinch get’s underway at 8.30 in the morning.

Strong Cork Challenge in Lahinch, South of Ireland Day 3

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AIG Senior Cup, Mallow Golf Club, Sunday 25thth June 2017Weather conditions in Lahinch were slightly better today as the opening two rounds of the matchplay got underway.  After two rounds there are still five Cork golfers involved, with two all-Cork clashes set for tomorrow morning.

Kinsale’s Cathal Butler and John Murphy made it through to the third round.  Murphy had a two hole win over his Munster team mate Andrew McCormack this afternoon while Butler won on the 18th against Robert Brazill from Naas.  Butler will face Peter O’Keeffe in the third round, O’Keeffe had wins today over two Limerick members, Owen O’Brien and Sean Poucher to book his place on the last 16.  Gary O’Flaherty will face James Sugrue in the final match tomorrow morning.  O’Flaherty needed all 18 holes this morning to beat Keith Murphy while this afternoon he dispatched Stephen Loftus 5&4.  Sugrue was the last player left on the course this evening and he wrapped up his match with Darragh Coghlan on the 17th.  With eight Cork qualifiers the hopes were high that someone might follow in Mervyn Owens footsteps and claim the prestigious South title.  After today there are still five with a chance.  Gary Ward won this morning but fell to Colm Campbell in the second round match this afternoon.  Two Cork qualifiers lost out in this morning’s first round.  Sean Desmond was handed a tough draw when he was put up against Conor O’Rourke from Naas.  The form book ruled and Continue reading →

Cork’s Top Golfers to challenge in Lahinch

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Douglas Golf Club Reception for Peter O'Keeffe, Irish Amateur Open Champion 2017. Wednesday 17th May2017A dozen Cork golfers will be hoping to bridge a 13 year gap and win the South of Ireland Championship this week.  Mallow’s Meryvn Owens was the last man to bring the famous trophy back to Cork in 2003, when he beat the holder Colm Moriarty on the 18th green in Lahinch.  Cork winners have been few and far between, John McHenry won in 1986 and before that there’s a 22 year gap to W A Kelleher’s win.  The statistics would suggest that a few more years should pass before the next Cork winner, but given the strength and depth of the Cork golfers competing this year, don’t rule out a good run from a few of the form golfers.

Irish Amateur Open winner Peter O’Keeffe leads the Cork challenge, and O’Keeffe be hoping to play all seven rounds over the five days that will see him into the final.  The big hitting Douglas member is currently playing of +3.3, and he’ll be joined by his friend and Barton Shield teammate Karl Bornemann.  Kinsale have three representatives in the field, John Murphy has two wins in the bag this year and will be hoping to gain his first senior title.  Cathal Butler won the Munster Strokeplay Continue reading →

Munster win against Connacht, Senior Interprovincials

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2017 Interprovincial Matches at Carlow Golf Club

Peter Sinclair (President, GUI) presenting Seamus McParland (Team Captain) with the 2017 Interprovincial trophy after Leinster victory at Carlow Golf Club today (05/07/2017). Also in the picture in front (from left) John Cullen (Team Manager), Moling Lennon (Captain, Carlow Golf Club) and John Ferriter (Chairman, Leinster Golf, GUI). Team members at back (from left) Caolan Rafferty, Jake Whelan, Eugene Smith, Jonathan Yates, Mark Power, Alan Lowry, Conor Purcell and Daniel Holland. Picture by Pat Cashman

Munster had a very strong closing performance in the final day of the Senior Interprovincials.  They won both sessions to claim a win against Connacht which gave some satisfaction after two tough days.  Foursomes wins from O’Keeffe and McCormack meant that the pair were unbeaten in three matches.  Gary O’Flaherty and Geoff Lenehan picked up their second win as a pair and Jack Pierse and John Murphy secured a half to win the session.  Afternoon wins from O’Keeffe, Lenehan, Griffin, Pierse and O’Flaherty secured the win for Munster.  Unfortunately Munster could only finish 3rd, losing a spot on the countback to Ulster.  The third place probably didn’t reflect how close Munster came to a win.  They were within one match of halving with Leinster and Ulster battled back to claim a half on Tuesday.  Leinster completed their first hat-trick since 1964 by winning a third successive Interprovincial Championship at Carlow.

Not since that great side of the ’60s won four on the trot from ’62 to ’65 have Leinster managed such a streak. And with three wins on the board, this was a thumping success.

Following wins against Munster and Connacht, Leinster only needed to halve with Ulster in order to retain the title but they made certain anyway, victorious for the third day running.  Dominant Continue reading →

Slow start for O’Keeffe, British Amateur Open

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Peter O’Keeffe had a slow start to the British Amateur yesterday as a wide range of scores were reported on day one in Royal St Georges.  O’Keeffe is the only Cork golfer in action and he signed for a three over par 73 on the par 70 layout.  O’Keeffe was one under through nine, he responded to an early bogey on the third with two birdies on the 7th and 9th.  The back nine was tougher though and the Douglas man ran up five bogies and one birdie to come back in 39 strokes.  O’Keeffe is just inside the top 200 and has a lot of work to do today on the Princes course.  He’ll need to get under par to have a chance of making the top 64 and get through to the match play stage.  Princes played somewhat easier yesterday with 18 of the top 20 scores coming from that course.  That included a course record -8 by Iceland’s Gisli Sveinbergsson.  Qualification is definitely possible for the big hitting Irish Amateur Open Champion.  He’s in a good vein of form after winning in Tralee last week and a good start is all he’ll need to mount a strong challenge for qualification.

Robin Dawson is the best placed Irish golfer, the Munster golfers shot a four under par 68 on the Princes course to lie tied for 20th place after the first round.  Fellow Munster golfers Geoff Lenehan and Jack Pierre are both outside the top 200 and qualification for the match play stage is unlikely.

O’Keeffe tees off at 10.45 this morning while Dawson is out on St George’s at 8.50.

Munster Debuts for Murphy & Sugrue

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John Murphy of Ireland during the final round

John Murphy, Pic: Tristan Jones

John Murphy and James Sugrue are set to make the Munster senior debuts next month in Carlow, they are two of three new caps to be named on the Munster Senior Interprovincial team.  Both Murphy and Sugrue have represented Munster at Boys level and are set to join the senior ranks in a new look team.  Captain Phil Cooney has named Murphy, Sugrue and Dublin based Jack Pierse in a team that see’s four changes from last year.  Waterford’s Eanna Griffin has also been named in the side that see’s four changes from last year.

It’s the biggest shake up in several years, although all eight golfers were the form players over the past few months, they took the top eight spots on the qualifying order of merit.  Cooney along with selectors John Carroll and Michael Coote had four picks to make after Peter O’Keeffe, Robin Dawson, John Murphy and Continue reading →

Tralee Win for O’Keeffe, Kerry Scratch Cup

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Peter O'Keeffe KSCPeter O’Keeffe overcame a one shot deficit in the final nine holes in Tralee today to claim the prestigious Kerry Scratch Cup.  O’Keeffe was joint leader going into the final round but Tralee’s Fergal O’Sullivan led by one shot after 45 holes.  It was a tough day for the players in Tralee, O’Sullivan was +3 at the turn and O’Keeffe was +4 as high winds and squally rain did its best to wear down the competitors.

O’Keeffe had a tough start, he lost a ball out of bounds on the third, and frustratingly he could see the ball was less than a foot on the wrong side of the markers.  A triple bogey there was a setback but O’Keeffe parred the next nine holes to get back into contention.  He parred the difficult 12th hole to get back to a share of the lead and his only birdie of the day came on the 14th when he took Continue reading →