Ennis JB Carr team marches on

IN a very exciting Munster semi-final of the JB Carr seniors’ inter-club competition, Ennis scored a narrow win over Nenagh at Ennis on Monday.

Two of the matches needed extra holes to produce a result before the home side, in front of a big following, emerged with a 3-2 win.
Noel Pyne and Michael Culliney had to go to the fourth tie hole (22nd) before they won their match while Tony Kehoe and Matt Flynn went to the 21st to secure victory in their game. Seán O’Gorman and Paul Higgins won their match on a 4 and 3 scoreline.
Larry O’Farrelly and Luke Coote lost their match on the 18th while Aidan Lynch and Eamonn Corry were beaten 3 and 2.

Ennis
OPEN week concluded at Ennis at the weekend and it was another outstanding success with big entries for all events.
In the opening men’s singles, Bernard O’Brien was the winner with 40 points from David Hoey, who had a similar score. Niall Howard was third with 39 points.
In the three-ball scramble, the winners were Jim, Margaret and Seamus McEnery with 58.9 from Colm Daly, Damian and Brian Gilligan on 58.9. Luke, Ciaran and Luke A Coote were third with 59.8.
Tuesday’s men’s fourball was won by Luke Coote and Tim McAllister with 46 points from Ger Hanrahan and Charlie McEnery on 45. In third spot on 43 were Emmet Moloney and Frank Considine.
Last Thursday’s team-of-four competition was won by Gerard and Martin Guerin, Dermot and PJ O’Neill with 89 points from Georgina Condon, Jean Moloney, Pat Ramsey and Ann O’Sullivan, who had a similar score. In third spot were John and David Daly, Brid Hayes and Mary F Coen on 88 points.
Michael Guerin won Friday’s open singles with 43 points from Kieran Cosgrove on 42, Damian Gilligan on 39 and Eddie Leen on 38. Noel Whelan won the gross with 33 points.
Bridie Keane and James Ball won the foursomes with 65 from Ann and Peter Daly on 66, Phil Butler and Luke Coote on 68, Mary Walshe and Tony Blake on 70. Sarah and Gary Cunningham won the gross.
Cora and TJ Kerins won the scotch foursomes with 43 from Peggy and Gary Duggan on 41, Kitty and Derek Morris on 40, M Smyth and Luke Coote on 39.

Spanish Point
JUNIOR member Rory Sexton, aged 11 years, recorded a hole-in-one on Friday evening last during the team-of-four scramble at Spanish Point, which has become very popular since it was introduced earlier this season.
The ace helped his team to a three under par gross to win the scramble. Other members were Sarah Kyne, Fergal Hehir and Michael Sexton.
In Tuesday’s seniors’ open, the winner was Willie McNamara with 37 points from Patrick O’Boyle on 33 points with Michael Morrissey in third spot with a similar score of 33 points.
The winner of the Thursday open was Michael Talty with 39 points from Conor Egan on 38 and Niall Hickey on 36.
In the Monday nine-hole re-entry, Damian Sexton was the winner with 23 points from Pat Greene on 21.
The winner of the August singles stroke golfer-of-the-year competition was Gerry Meade with 65 from Dermot Waldron on 67 and Seán McMahon on a similar score.
Club members have extended good wishes to Valerie Shannon and Sinéad Sexton, who are playing for Lahinch ladies in the ILGU All Ireland Senior Cup finals at Cork Golf Club at the weekend.
The captain’s (Gary Carroll) prize will be played for this weekend and a timesheet will apply. There will be a nine-hole ladies’ competition on Saturday evening at 6.15pm.
Martina Skerritt (22) was the winner of the lady captain’s charity competition with a score of 34 points. The ladies’ club will hold the Bellbridge House Hotel open day on Monday.

Kilrush
MARGARET Hehir won the ladies’ open singles at Kilrush last week with 36 points from Martina Walsh on 35, Miriam Saunders on 35 and Martina Skerritt on 35. The category winners were Anne Brennan with 35, Geraldine Brennan with 35 and Anne Hogan with 33.
In the ladies’ open fourball last week, Mary Bolton and Stephanie Roughan were the winners with 42 points from Niamh Whelan and Sheila O’Grady on 39 points. Anne Brennan and Peggy Mulqueen were third on 39 points.
This week, the lady president’s (Loretto Maher) prize will be played for.
Open week attracted big entries last week and the winners of the mixed were Donal Kenny and Ursula Lineen with 60 from Finbarr McMahon and Peggy Costelloe on 61.5. In third spot were Pat Shannon and Ailish Lorigan on 66. Jim Young senior and Mary Young won the gross with 79 John Greer won the men’s singles with 42 points from Anthony Burke on 40 and Tony Kenny on 39. The nines were won by Brian Scanlan and Robert Prunty.
In the men’s singles stroke competition, Diarmuid Murphy won with 63 from Tom Smyth on 65 and Seán Moran on 66. John Green won the gross while the nines were won by Adrian Kearney and John Donnelly.
Jim O’Brien and Mark Mulcahy were the winners of the open fourball on Monday with 46 points from Kieran Golden and Gerard Kelly on 42.
Diarmuid Murphy won Tuesday’s singles with 39 points from Gerard Buckley on a similar score with Jim McKenna next on 38. The nines were won by Neil Browne with 20 points and James Murphy with 21 points.
In Wednesday’s singles, Gerry Ryan was the winner with 37 points from Diarmuid Murphy on a similar score with Neil Browne in third spot and he also scored 37 points. Finbarr McMahon and Gerry Reynolds won the nines with 20 and 21 points respectively.
Declan O’Donovan and Geraldine Burke won the mixed foursomes from Tom Prendeville and Marion Brennan with third spot filled by Donal Kenny and Ann Hogan. Jim and Mary Young won the gross.
Saturday’s team-of-four competition was won by Christy Cosgrave (13) (Rathbane); Bernard O’Sullivan (16); Jim O’Brien (19); John Reddan (19) (Shannon) with 98 points from Mike O’Connor (11); Aidan Sexton (15); Pat Lorigan (16) (Spanish Point) and Don Ryan (14) (Ennis) with 93 points.
The competition this Sunday will be the Flan Brew Memorial Open Singles.
Meanwhile, in the men’s seniors’ captain’s (PW Glynn) prize, the winner was Michael Hemmings with 41 points from Michael Leonard on a similar score. TJ Lyons was third, also with 41 points, followed by John Donnelly on 40, Michael Lillis 40 points and Michael Carrig (22) on 40 points.
The nines were won by Tom Prendeville on 20 points and Oliver McNamara (12) on 19 points. The winner of the past captain’s prize was Denis Nagle (7) on 37 points and other prize winners were (O-65s), Michael Horgan (11) 38 points; nearest the pin at fourth, Donal Kenny; nearest the pin at ninth, Brendan McNamara.
The men’s seniors’ president’s (John Stapleton) prize will be on Wednesday, August 25.

Portumna
THE winner of the lady captain’s (Maria Kelly) prize at Portumna was Anita Carey (13) with 74 from Suzanne Corcoran (3) who had a similar score. Caroline Carr (29) was next with 72 followed by Sadie Tierney (23) 75, Geraldine O’Reilly (30) 75 nett and Mabel Conroy (24) 76 nett, Ann Cassidy (5) won the gross with 85.
Other prize winners included seniors, Mary Cahalan (32) 78 nett; past captain: Johanna Burke (25) 78; longest drive, Suzanne Corcoran; nearest the pin, Judith Barry; nine-hole, Mary Craughwell (36) 44 nett; visitors Annette Molloy (27) 38, from Hillary Keely (24) 37.
In the nine-hole competition for men, Tom Moloney (11) was the winner with 22 from Alan Hayes (16), who had a similar score. Seán Cleary (3) won the gross with 18.
The winner of the men’s 18-hole stroke competition on Sunday was Seán Hogan with (19) 68 from Conor Barry (13) on 69 and Jim Hynes (16) on 69. Seán Cleary (3) won the gross with 75 while the seniors’ winner was Jackie Gilchrist (15) with 73 nett.
Portumna are the Connacht Junior Cup champions after they beat Rosses Point at Castlebar. They now meet the Ulster champions in the All-Ireland semi-final on September 15 at Castlebar. The panel was Ger Lynch, Seán Cleary, Shane Ryan, Shane McHugo, Niall Kilkenny, John Cleary, and Pat Quinlan. The team captain is Matt Donoghue.
The club is running an open three-ball competition this Friday, Saturday and Sunday to raise funds for the team.
During the month of August, Portumna will host the Musgraves Crumlin Children’s Hospital All-Ireland club challenge. The format is nine-hole rumble (team of any three combination). The competition is played over the first nine holes.
The winning team qualifies for the Connacht final at Lough Erne Golf resort on September 8. The winners from there qualify for the All-Ireland final to be played in Portugal in October.

Lahinch
LAHINCH ladies travel to Cork this weekend for the conclusion of the Ladies’ Senior Cup competition. On Friday evening, they will play Claremorris and victory here will put them into a semi-final on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Noel Sexton won the Brud Slattery Memorial Trophy, played for on the Castle Course in Lahinch last week, with 40 points. Seán Moloney was second with a similar score. John Reidy was third and he also scored 40 points. Vincent Downes, Michael Gibson and Kevin Lynch filled the next three positions and they each scored 39 points.
The ladies’ singles stroke competition for the Clahane Cup was won by Nicola Kenny with 61 nett from Eugenie Kearney on 62. Patsy McCarthy was third on 63 followed by Una Molony on 64. Olivia Hayes won the gross with 71.
The winner of category 1 was Elayne Hickey with 66 nett from Francis Wood who had a similar score. Sally Lynch won category 2 from Imelda Gleeson and both scored 68 nett.
The winners of the ladies’ fourball Stableford competition on the Castle Course were Chris Tinney and Sinéad Conway with 44 points from Cora and Emma De Fritas with 42 points with third spot filled by Eileen Corry and Ann Kirby on 39 points.
In a similar competition for men, Niall Crowe and Kiran Sarma were the winners with 43 points from Don Kenny and Richard Barrett on 42.
The men’s singles v par competition on the championship course was won by Ger O’Neill with two-up from Cathal Crowe on one-up. John Wall was next followed by Terry McCarthy and Brian Hanly and all three returned scores of level. Eddie Power won the gross with two-down.
Pat and Philip Collier won the men’s fourball Stableford competition on the Castle Course with 45 points, while the winners of a similar competition for the ladies were Mary and Marese Mannion with 35 points.
The Nora Slattery Memorial Trophy was won by Muiriosa Connolly with 41 points from Miriam Abernethy on 39 with Nicola Kenny next on 39 followed by Katherine Feore, also with 39. Eileen Rose Power won the gross with 34.
Marie O’Connor won the silver division with 37, while Mary O’Brien won the bronze division with 38. The nines were won by Eadaoin Furey with 21 and Mary O’Meara with 20 points.
In the men’s fourball Stableford competition on the Castle Course last Thursday, Kevin and Eoghan Mannion were the winners with 47 points from Alan and Gabriel Brennan on 45, Fergal Deasy and Michael O’Riordan on 45, Kevin O’Siochain and Rory Nolan on 45.
The Dunnally Cup ladies’ foursomes Stableford competition was won by Angela Cullinan and Mary Sadlier with 34 points from Jenny Cagney and Rina Hanrahan on 33. In third spot on 32 points were Susan Coakley and Mary Malone with 32 points followed by Nicola Kenny and Eadaoin Furey with 31 points.
The winners of the Munster Cup, a men’s foursomes v par competition, were Richard Barrett and John Finn with one-up from Juan Fitzgerald and Ger Maher on one-down. John Wall and Cathal Crowe were third with one down.
Ger McMahon and Colm Kennedy won the men’s fourball Stableford competition on the Castle Course with 40 points last Friday.
In the Moy Cup, Niall and Susan Morrison defeated Fergal and Eimear Costelloe in the final. The beaten semi-finalists were John and Imelda Gleeson, Ray and Dianne Hennessy while the leading qualifiers were Paul Talty and Sarah Barry.
The lady captain’s (Anna Glynn) prize was played for last Saturday and Georgina Condon (16) emerged as the winner with 41 points from Liz O’Driscoll (22) on 37 points. They were followed by Jenny Hennessy (7) on 37 points; Edel Banim (13) on 36 points; Ruth O’Gorman (22) on 36 points; Careena Roche (25) on 36 points; Nollie McCarthy (20) on 35 points; Deirdre McDermott (19) on 35 points; Frances Wood (16) on 35 points; Diane Hennessy (15) on 35 points and Val Shannon (7) on 34 points.
The gross was won by Eileen Rose Power with 37 points.
The silver section was won by Sinéad Sexton (4) with 36 points from Rina Hanrahan (12) with 36 points and Mary O’Meara (10) 36 points.
In the bronze section, Patricia O’Donnell (23) won with 36 points from Maire Hanrahan (26) with 34 points and Frances Hough (23) with 34 points.
The nines were won by Marjorie Aherne (13) with 21 points and Barbara McAleese (17) with 22 points, while the past captain’s category was won by Kay Vaughan (15) with 33 points.
The winner on the Castle Course was Mona Davis (20) with 30 points from Colette McInerney (32) with 43 points, Clodagh Barry (27) with 35 points, Janet Cavanagh (29) with 32 points; Una Moloney (34) won the prize for the best 30 to 36 handicaps with 28 points while the nines were won by Joan Nally (30) with 17 points and Cait Murphy (34) with 16 points. Pat Elmes (24) won the nine-hole with 16 points.

Munster Camogie Classic
THE annual classic in aid of Munster camogie will take place on Friday, September 10 at Tipperary Golf Club in Dundrum.
Entries for this team-of-four event can be given to  Eamonn Browne 087 1256025, Marion Graham 087 2764856 or Orla Considine 087 2417355.

Shannon
THE ladies’ section at Shannon recently ran a team of four (any combination) with entry to the club classic awaiting the winners. The successful quartet were Jody O’Connor, Jarlaith O’Looney, William O’Brien and Seán Cleary with 103 points. They had one point to spare from Eamon Fanneran, Barry Murphy, Gerry Monahan and Dermot Murphy.
The Wednesday open singles saw Shannon members dominate with David O Gorman victorious with 43 points. David had one to spare from Roger McMahon with Paul O’Connor third on 41points and Ed Hickey winning the gross with 35 points.
Over the weekend, the men’s September medal was played for. With the race on for qualification for the end-of-season masters, scoring was hot with Denis Quinlan capturing the spoils by virtue of a better back nine from Ian Sherwin, both returning 66 nett. Darren Keane was third with 67 again by virtue of a better back nine from Kieran Carmody. A brace of 68s saw Paul Lehane and Philip McPhilips capture fifth and sixth prizes respectively. Christy Sherlock was seventh with 69 while Paul O Neill won the gross with 72.
The club development classic takes place this weekend while the lady vice captain’s (Mary O’Brien) prize will also be played for. The club president’s (Bernie Ryan) prize will be played for on Friday, Saturday and Sunday week.

Gort
MAURA Hanrahan won the ladies’ singles competition at Gort last week with 38 points from Siobhán O’Connor on 34 and Ruth Naughton on 34. In the Monday singles, Ann Marie Cradock was the winner with 35 points from Siobhán Shandon (East Clare) on 34 points.
Open week is ongoing at the club and will run until Sunday.

Clarecastle
CLARECASTLE Golf Society will hold its next outing at Shannon  next Thursday, when the first tee will be reserved from 2pm to 3.30pm.

Woodstock
JD Guiney from Ballybunion won the senior scratch cup at Woodstock at the weekend with 144. He had four strokes to spare from Ciarán Sheehy from Stackstown with Edward Stack from Ballybunion in third spot on 149.
The first 18 gross was won by Patrick McElhinney with 71 from Paul O’Neill on 72 while the nett was won by Lewy Halpin from Shannon with 145.
The winner of the Sunday singles was Kevin Toner (13) with 41 points from Paul Mullane (18) on 40 and Tony Nugent (5) on 40. In the Wednesday singles, James Carmody (10) won with 41 points from Justin Neville (24) on 40 and David McNamara (20) on 39 points.
The August medal will be played for this weekend.
The Junior Scratch Cup will be played for on Saturday week, August 21 with the Intermediate Scratch Cup the competition on Sunday week.

Dromoland
SUE Cash won the ladies’ Stableford competition at Dromoland on Sunday from Julie Newman with Maire McMahon in third spot.
Sunday’s Stableford competition was won by Yvonne Shanahan from Sue Cash and Carmel Kirby.
The mixed foursomes team lost out to Killarney in the semi-final at Newcastle West on Saturday.
Mary Arthur and John Casey lost five and four, Siobhán Dyar and Nicky Duggan lost three and two, Sue Cash and Declan O’Leary lost three and two, Dorothy Brennan and Brian Hickey won three and two while Sandy Smith and Kieran Newman halved their game.

East Clare
JOE Barriscale was the winner of the Intermediate Scratch Cup at East Clare with 78 gross. He had a shot to spare from Seán McMahon on 79 with Liam Doyle in third sot on 81.
In the men’s open singles, Daire Brady was the winner from Tom Larkin and Oisín Brady, all three on 40 points.
Siobhán Shanahan won the ladies’ golfer-of-the-year competition with 67 nett from Phil Burke on 70. The category winners were Peg Hanrahan with 72, Evelyn Skehan with 70 and Ina Reddan with 82.
The lady vice captain’s (Siobhán Shanahan) prize will be played for this Sunday and this is a golfer-of-the-year event while the men will have an 18 hole singles competition.

Sixmilebridge
RICHARD Hayes won the Sixmilebridge society’s president’s prize at the weekend ith 35 points from Bobby Deegan on 34 and Fergie Cooney on 33. Jackie Conlon won the high handicappers category while the nines were won by John Nihill and Ian Mulready. Eamonn Healy won the long drive and the nearest-the-pin competitions while Christy Healy won the guests’ section.

Pitch and putt
THE winners of the two-ball scramble at the Clare Road pitch and putt club on Sunday were Noel Cuddihy and PJ Considine from Tony Clancy and Denis McElligott.
The captain’s (Gabriel Kerin) day will take place on Sunday week, August 22.