Cleary winner in Mid-West Alliance

TONY Cleary emerged as the overall winner of the Mid-West Alliance, which concluded at Dromoland at the weekend.

He returned rounds of 71, 72 and 73 to win by two from Tim Rice (Limerick) and Dave Foley (Dromoland) who both returned rounds of 72, 73 and 73. Jason O’Leary was next with rounds of 70, 75 and 75.
In cold and blustery conditions, Cleary had lost his two-shot lead on Dave Foley by the time they reached the 18th hole and a play-off looked likely. Both hit good teeshots at the final hole. Cleary then hit a three wood from 240 yards for his second to set up a birdie, while Foley laid up to within 100 yards. He hit a weak third that led to a bogey six and Cleary’s two-stroke lead was restored. Cleary went through his final round with just 24 putts and he was minus two for the last four holes after birdies at the 15th and 18th. He will hope to maintain this form when he plays in the West of Ireland Championship at Rosses Point next month.
In the gross section on Sunday, Cleary Rice and Foley were tied on 73. In the nett section, Declan O’Leary from the host club won with 69 with Alan Neville and Jason O’Leary, both Dromoland, tied for second place.
Paudie McGrath with six, won the most birdies category, while nearest the pin on the seventh was Jason O’Donnell from Shannon with his clubmate, Paul O’Neill, winning nearest the pin at the 13th.

Woodstock
CAPTAINS Anne Marie Russell and Jim Carmody, president, James Meade, and seniors captain, Eugene Phillips, will drive in to office at Woodstock this Sunday at 2.30pm. The drive-in will be followed by a nine-hole scramble.
Week four of the spring league four-ball competition took place last week when Paul Sherlock and Tony Barrett were the winners with 50 points from Paul Coote and Tom Fogarty with 48 points.
In the club singles at the weekend, David Dillon was the winner with 43 points.
Week five of the league continues this week and the format will be a rumble, while there will also be a club singles.
In the weekly seniors’ competition, a team-of-three modified scramble over 15 holes, the winning team comprised Brendan McNamara, Eugene Quinn and Donal Kenny with 63 points. 

Ennis
THE winners of the men’s fourball at Ennis at the weekend were Gerry Bredin and John Dempsey with 45 points from Jason Woods and TJ Scanlan, who had a similar score. Dave Pender and John Lillis were third with 43 points.
Meanwhile, 93 members played in the Ennis seniors three-ball modified scramble last week with two scores to count at each hole. The winners with 77 points were Pat Rutherford, Tom Pilkington and Jimmy McNamara followed by Val Bredin, Bobby Burke and Tom Pender with 75 points. In third place were Bill Leacy, Pádraig Ryan and Ger O’Brien followed by Seamus Frehill, Carl O’Neill and Noel Ruane with fifth spot filled by Pat Cahill, Greg Fogarty and Maurice Walshe and all scored 74 points. In sixth spot were John Finn, John Devitt and John Keane followed by Frank Landy, Sean O’Gorman and John White also with 74, while Pat Cusack, Johnnie Guerin and Dick Herbert were next with 73.

Spanish Point
LAST weekend, the men’s club at Spanish Point hosted their annual fundraising competition, which was a team scramble event and it was well supported. With the course in good condition, an abundance of birdies recorded. The winning team of Eoghan O’Loughlin (3), Micheál Hehir (12), Gerry O’Loughlin (18) and Denis Gallery, who shot 10 under gross (56) for 51.2 nett. In second place were Martin Glenny (15), John Meere (14), Noel Connellan (16) and Patrick O’Boyle (19) with 55.7nett, followed by Martin Dormer (15), Derry Waldron (20), Harry Crowe (17) and Carl O’Neill (28) with 56 nett.
Over 20 played in the senior open held on Tuesday and the winner was John Croke (16) Rathbane with 41 points followed by John Stapleton (18) Kilrush with 39 points. In Friday’s open, Johnny Wilson (15) won with a good score of 39 points. The senior open for male and female golfers continues each Tuesday and for this and club competitions, timesheets are in the clubhouse.

East Clare
IN the men’s four-ball better-ball competition at East Clare at the weekend, the winners were Tony McNulty (13) and Teddy O’Hanlon (14) with 51 points from Stephen (11) and Brendan Moloney (11) with 48 points.
There will be an 18-hole men’s singles this weekend.
Round 2 of the winter league has now been completed and there is a tie at the top with William O’Brien’s team and Jim Dunne’s team both on 18 points. They are followed by Brendan Moloney’s team and there is a great contest on for the fourth and final qualifying slot.
The March phase of the winter league is an 18-hole waltz competition with the three best cards to count. Already into the lead is Leo Mannion’s (Leo Mannion, Nick Ryan, Siobhán Shanahan) team with a score of 81 points. The next best score is also from Leo’s (Tony Stuart, Flan Clune, Catherine Murphy) team with 78 points.
The nine-hole singles is also still running for the winter league and this will play a huge part in deciding who gets the final slot. There is already some exceptional scoring in the nine-hole singles and Martin McInerney’s 27 points has been equalled by Stephen Moloney this past weekend.

Kilrush
AFTER week three of the spring league at Kilrush, Pat Murtagh’s team holds the lead with 248 points followed by Michael Hogan’s team on 243 and Gearóid Williams’ team on 236.
The play-off will take place on Sunday March 18 at 9am and a timesheet will be in operation for the weekend.
The winners in the February singles were James Murtagh with 28 points, John Stapleton with 27 points, Jimmy McSwiggan with 29 points and Finbarr McMahon with 29 points.
In the seniors’ competition last Wednesday, the winners of the team event were Tom Prendeville, Paddy Carmody and Noel Haier, from Sean Moray, John Stapleton and John Robinson, with third spot filled by TJ Lyons, Bill Murphy and Tom Cleary.
There will be a team competition for seniors on Wednesday next (March 14) at 1pm.
There will be a scramble on bank holiday Monday, March 19 with a draw for partners at 2pm.

Shannon
LIZ O’Sullivan (15) was the winner of the ladies’ 15-hole singles competition at Shannon last week with 34 points. She had one to spare over Eleanor O’Brien (24) with 33 with third spot filled by Mary Curran (25) with 32 points.
In the men’s section, there was a team-of-four competition at the weekend and the winners with 85 points were Tom Brennan (9), John McPhillips (12), Brian Sherlock (14) and John Kelly (19). They had one point to spare over Mike Kilmartin (12), Pat Griffin (17), Denis Bartley (2) and John O’Connor (20).

Dromoland
THE winner of the singles competition in the winter league at Dromoland at the weekend was Daren Piccolo. The winning team comprised Declan O’Leary, Kieran McDermott, Martin O’Mahoney, Philip Naughton and Joe Moran followed by Sean Myatt, Paul O’Brien, Niall Geraghty, Michael Flannery and Dale Foley. In third spot were Sean Shanahan, PJ Hehir, Mark Lennon, Killian Howard and Damien Ryan.

Portumna
SCORING was high in the weekend competition at Portumna with Shane Ryan (5) winning the 0-10 category with 32 points. In category 11 to 14, David Burke (11) was the winner with 35 points. Gerry Colman (16) won category 15-18 with 31 points, Hugh Davery (28) won category 19 and over with 32 points, while the seniors’ section was won by Jackie Gilchreest (14) with 27 points.
There will be an 18-hole competition for men this Sunday.
The presentation of prizes in the ladies’ spring league will take place on Sunday at 6.30pm. The members of the winning team were Carmel Cunningham, Mary McDonagh, Ena Moran, Mary F Madden and Marie Kelly with 269 points. The runners-up were Anita Carey, Mary Madden, Brigid Broderick, Ann Carty and Catherine Dunne with 258 points.
Lady members are invited to a captain’s outing to Roscrea on March 31.
The open three-ball will continue this month and next.
The club will host its first open father-and-son fourball on Good Friday and an open fourball over Easter weekend.

Cooraclare-Cree
COORACLARE/Cree Golf Society held their first outing of the year at Lahinch on Saturday last with a good turnout on the day.
Winner in the men’s section was Denis Nagle with 43 points followed by Martin Morrissey with 40 and Gabriel Looney with 39.  In the ladies’ section, the winner was Clare Pyne with 35 points from Geraldine Burke and Margaret Clune with 31.
The next outing for the society will be in Ennis on Easter Saturday, April 7 with the tee reserved from 10am.

Corofin
COROFIN Society will hold its first ever outing to Doonbeg on Sunday when a big turnout is expected with many hoping to play the course for the first time.
The tee is reserved from 10am and members are asked to be present well in advance of the start time.

Lahinch
IN the men’s singles stroke competition on Saturday on the championship course at Lahinch, Gerry McGrath (23) was the winner with 39 points from Cathal Hegarty (11) with 37 points and Niall Gleeson (10), also with  37 points.
Ray Hennessy (3) and Jarlath O’Halloran (5) were the winners of Sunday’s fourball with 40 points.

Gort
TONY Curran was the winner of the weekend singles at Gort with 39 points from John Tierney on a similar score with Andy Murphy in third spot on 38 points followed by Martin Callinan, also with 38. Colman Cooney won the gross with 32 points.
There will be a similar competition this weekend with the weekly open on Monday.
The ladies spring league final will be this Sunday.

Sixmilebridge
THE Sixmilebridge Society outing will be to Woodstock this Saturday with the tee reserved from 10.15am to 11.15am.

Pitch and putt
PJ Considine was the winner of the Mickey Kerin Shield at the Clare Road club on Sunday. Tommy Kelly was second, while Marty Fawl won the gross.