Dromoland’s Dave Foley is Munster’s top pro

DROMOLAND’S David Foley is the Munster Professional Golfer of the Year after finishing in first place in the order of merit over eight events.

DROMOLAND’S David Foley is the Munster Professional Golfer of the Year after finishing in first place in the order of merit over eight events.
The final event of the series took place at Castlemartyr in Cork last week where the timesheet was based on order of merit positions with the top three players out in the last group. It turned out to be a great battle between Michael Collins and David Foley for the order of merit title with the Clare man holding on after a tense final round.
Collins had to win and Foley had to finish outside of the top nine for Collins to take the title. It looked like this was a strong possibility when Collins was -3 after 8 and Foley was +4 after 6. However a fantastic finish from David where he played the last 12 holes in 2 under meant that the title of Munster Professional golfer of the Year was his.
The outing itself was won by Limerick man Cian McNamara who shot a solid 71 In second position came Irish Club Pro Champion Michael Collins with a 72. Foley finished in fourth spot.

Dromoland
THE St Patrick’s weekend singles competition at Dromoland was won by Brian Shally with 40 points from Eric Flynn on 38 points and Jason O’Leary with a similar score. Philip O’Sullivan won the over 18 handicap category with 36 points while the junior section was won by Sean Myatt with 41 points.
This weekend’s competition will be a three-ball scramble and the draw will take place on Friday at 12 noon.

Irish Ladies’ Scratch Cup
THE Irish Ladies’ Golf Union and Titleist launched the inaugural Irish Ladies’ Scratch Cup Circuit for the island of Ireland last week and Lahinch has been included in the schedule.
A mini-tournament has been devised for the players whereby order of merit points earned from four of the first six ladies Scratch Cups of 2012 will be accumulated. Points will be awarded to players who shoot scores within three strokes of the competition scratch score at each event.
The first Scratch Cup sees Ireland’s elite gather at Royal Portrush for the Zara Bolton Scratch Trophy. The event will be closely followed by 36 hole tournaments at Royal, County Down and Cork over consecutive weekends. After Easter, players will then compete at the Woodbrook and Lahinch Scratch Cups with the circuit culminating at Hermitage, where double points will be on offer. The Lahinch event is set for April 28
Details are available at www.ilgu.ie.

Woodstock
ROUND six of the Spring League at Woodstock was a singles competition and the winner was Andrew Mason (18) with 45 points from John O’Connor (10) with 44 points and Dermot O’Neill (14) with a similar score.

Ennis
ENNIS Seniors held a four-ball competition on Thursday last when the winners were Don Ryan and John Keane with 40 points from John White and Tony Coote who had a similar score. In third spot with 39 points were Ferdie O’Donoghue and John Cullinan and they were followed by Paul Higgins and Terry Hughes with 39 points. In fifth place with 39 points were Larry Parkes and Ned Ryan with sixth place filled by Conor Murphy and Eamonn Murphy, also with 39 points.
The winners of the team-of-three scramble on St Patrick’s Day were Peter Cosgrove, Martin Daly and Paudie Carmody with 44 nett from Philip Brigdale, Tom Mulhearn and Pat Garry on 45.3 nett. In third spot with 45 nett were Colm McNevin, Johnnie Cullinan and Sean O’Gorman.
In the club singles on Sunday, John Considine was the winner with 45 points from John Guerin on 42, Tommy Corbett on 40, Tim Kelly on 40 and Ollie Kenneally on 39. Dave Pender won the gross with 29 points.

Lahinch
THE men’s aggregate fourball for the Aspirants Cup was the competition at Lahinch on St Patrick’s Day when the winners were Bill Frazer (12) and John G Skerritt (9) with 75 points from Declan McInerney (1) and Stephen Hennessy (5) with 74 points. In third spot with 74 points were Gerry Pierse (7) and Dan O’Donovan (10).
In a ladies’ aggregate fourball on the same day, Miriam (7) and Elizabeth Abernethy (16) won with 74 points from Mary Sadlier (11) and Connie Fahy (18) with 71 points.
The Barrett Smith Cup, a ladies’ singles stroke competition, was played for on the Castle Course where the winner was Imelda Gleeson (24) with 66 nett from Connie Fahy (18) with 68 nett and Elayne Hickey (9) with 69 nett. Jenny Hennessy won the gross with 75.
The men’s foursomes on Monday was won by James (11) and Niall Collins (15) with 34 points from Paul McInerney (5) and Greg Young (5) with a similar score.
In the scotch mixed foursomes Stableford competition on Monday, Ray (3) and Jenny Hennessy (6) were the winners with 38 points from Jerry (9) and Yvonne Keohane (18) with a similar score. John (5) and Aoife Killeen (17) were third with 37 points, while Ger and Rachel Maher won the gross with 23 points.

Portumna
IN the men’s 18-hole singles competition at Portumna at the weekend, Paddy Kelly (22) was the winner with 40 points from Kevin Kelly (9) with 39 points, Pat Craughwell (18) with 37 points and John O’Gorman (17) with 37 points. Cathal O’Byrne (5) won the gross with 33 points.
In the ladies’ section, Lily Craydon (27) won the 14-hole competition with 32 points from Kathleen Lynch (16) with 30 points and Anita Carey (13) with 30 points.
The February winners in the monthly open three-ball competition were Vincent Treacy (14), Tom Moloney (13) and John Cormican (18) with 49 points from Pádraig Dolan (12), Jan O’Loughlin (20) and John Gilmore (18) Mountbellew with a similar score. 
There is an ongoing nine-hole re-entry competition playable Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. 
The club will host its first open father-and-son fourball on Good Friday, while there will be an open fourball over the Easter weekend.

Doonbeg
PAT Cotter was the winner of the singles competition at Doonbeg last week from Timmy Killeen.
In a similar competition last Sunday, Pat Hanrahan won from Gerard Ryan. 
Pat O’Malley and Vivian Killeen have qualified for the singles matchplay final which will be played this weekend.
The next competition is a semi open fourball on Sunday.
The president’s prize (Michael Bermingham) has been scheduled for Sunday, April 15.

Kilrush
THE play-off for the 2012 Spring League took place last Sunday at Kilrush. Conditions were ideal for good golf and the winners of tier 1 were Tony and Finbarr McMahon, Michael Coghlan, D Murphy and S Roughan with 82 points from E Rigney, B Coen, L Rigney, A Coen, C Pyne with 77 points. Third spot was filled by P Murtagh, J Murtagh, O McNamara, J McNeilis, M McNamara with 76 points.
In tier 2, the winners were N Haier, J Robinson, Ml Bolton, M Collins and I Kerrigan with 76 points from T Smyth, N Thornton, M Studdert, S Lyons and M Lyons with 73 points.
The leading qualifiers were Pat Murtagh’s team with 323 points.
In the men’s singles competition, the winner was Michael Coghlan with 30 points, while Mary Collins won the ladies’ singles with 29 points.
In last week’s seniors, the winners were Noel Haier, Pat Shannon, Mick Lane and Matt Fitzpatrick from Tom O’Dea, Noel Cooney and Noel Thornton with third spot filled by PJ Maher, Bill Murphy, Tom McGrath and Barry Taylor.
In the bank holiday scramble on Monday, the winners were Pat Shannon (Cranny), Brendan Carrig and Mary Bolton from Sean and Freda Moran and Geraldine Burke with third spot filled by Pat Shannon (Kilrush), John Robinson and Margaret Clune.
The Paddy Shannon men’s matchplay competition (handicap 18 and over) draw will take place on the weekend of April 8.

Kilkee
IN the Spring League at Kilkee, the winners on week two were G O’Flynn (12) 31 points, T Ahern (14) 27 points, D Garvey (17) 33 points, P Sheahan (17) 29 points and D Marrinan (24) 27 points. The first in the individual category was M Galvin (17) on 36 points.
In the hampers’ competition, the winner was P Harte (14) 35 points from M Mullane (9) 35 points and G Roche (12) 32 points.

East Clare
THE winners of the Texas scramble competition at East Clare were Jim Varley (18), Viviane Cahalane (17), Jack Brennan (14) and John McNamara (21) with 54 nett followed by Brendan Moloney (11), Stephen Moloney (11), Tim Walsh (19) and Sean Jones (20) with 57.9 nett.
The best ladies’ team comprised Peg Hanrahan, Bridie Hanrahan, Brid Hayes and Kathleen O’Brien.
In the men’s seniors’ competition, the winners were Jim Greene, Jackie McHugh and Chris Davis from JJ Barton, Steve Symes and Tim McGrath with third spot filled by John Doyle, Denis Collins and Vinny Henchy.
In the ladies’ seniors outing, the winners were Mary Collins, Catherine Murphy and Jan Davies from Sue Casey, Hannah Guinnane and Pat Williams.
There will be a scotch foursomes for the men this weekend, while the ladies will have a medal competition.

Shannon
JEAN Murphy-Wright was the winner of the ladies’ singles competition played over the winter at Shannon in aid of the Wheelchair Association. She had a final score of 79 points to win from Mary Flynn on 76 and Sheila Treacy on 75.
In the Tradaree Cup, an 18-hole stroke competition for men at the weekend, the winner was Eamonn Fanneran (8) with 63 nett from Michael O’Connor (8) on 64, Ciarán Considine (10) on 66, Peter Hegarty (11) on 67, Noel Casey (11) on 68, Noel Purcell (17) on 68 and JP Meaney (11) on 68. Ed Hickey (1) won the gross with 72, while Damian Casey (4) was second with 74.
In the weekly 15-hole singles on Wednesday, the winner was Liam O’Gorman (15) with 39 points from Liam Alford (11) who had 38 points and Michael Carroll (18) with 37 points. Pádraig Cahillane (3) won the gross with 31 points.

Gort
IN the ladies’ Spring League final, Teresa Gill, Patricia Skehill, Mary Geoghegan, Josie Cummins and Ann Jordan were the winners from  Siobhán Forde, Maureen Brennan, Margaret Whelan, Olivia McFadden and Gabrielle Warnock.
In the men’s section, the Monday open was won by David McAllan (17) with 41 points from Chris Murphy (9) with 39 points, Eanna Melville (12) with 38 points and Kieran Cullinane (14) with 38 points.  Colman Cooney (3) won the gross with 35 points.
In the weekend singles competition, Niall Divinney (16) with 44 points was the winner from Ger Connors (13) with a similar score. Colm Grealish (12) was third with 43 points followed by Eanna Melville (12) with 43 points. David Quirke (3) won the gross with 34 points.
There will be a men’s singles competition this weekend with the weekly open continuing on Monday. 

Spanish Point
THE winners of last week’s ladies’ stroke competition at Spanish Point were Kathleen Twoomey (28) with a score of 66 nett from Della Malone (17) on a score of 72 nett.
Maura Burke and Angela Dowling were winners of the previous week’s competitions.
There will be a three-ball scramble next Sunday.

Clarecastle
AT a recently well-attended 2012 Clarecastle Society AGM, the following officers were elected: Joe Green, captain; Liam Barry president; PJ Garry, secretary; John Casey, treasurer and Mike Foley, PRO. Elected committee members comprise James Murtagh (captain elect 2013/14); Noel Connellan (president elect 2013/14); Niall McMahon, Paschal Russell, Bernard Hanrahan, John Enright and John Meere. The first outing of 2012 will be held at Galway Bay this Saturday. The first tee has been reserved from 11.20am. A timesheet will operate on the day. Members and guests intending to play should text their preferred tee time to 086 3246015.

Clare teachers
THE Clare Teachers Society will hold an outing to Spanish Point this Saturday, when the tee will be available from 9.30am to 11am. The competition format will be 18-hole singles and a timesheet is in operation. Contact Joan at 086 3167365.

Pitch and putt
AT the Clare Road Pitch and Putt Club on Sunday, the winner of the McElligott shield was Paddy Sheedy from Noel Cuddihy with Marty Fawl winning the gross.
The bronze trophy will be played for this Sunday.