Festival of golf to mark Doonbeg’s 10th anniversary

DOONBEG Golf Club will, next week, celebrate the 10th anniversary of the opening of the championship golf course with a festival of golf.

The course, built around Doughmore Bay, officially opened for play on July 9, 2002, when course designer, Greg Norman, defeated Ireland’s Pádraig Harrington in a special exhibition match to mark the occasion. Four years later, all of the five-star lodgings, restaurants, clubhouse, spa and other amenities came into operation.
To mark the anniversary of the course opening, the club has created the Doonbeg Festival of Golf, which will take place from Monday, July 16 to Friday, July 20. The festival, open to all, features different events every day. The Monday Blues tournament is a men’s 18-hole open singles Stableford off the blue markers and there is also a ladies’ open singles. On Tuesday, there will be an 18-hole open mixed scotch foursomes, while on Wednesday, the competition will be an 18-hole open four-person team scramble (any combination). On Thursday, there will be an 18-hole open fourball (any combination), while on Friday, there will be a similar competition.
Prizes will include Doonbeg accommodation and golf equipment. Every day, Doonbeg’s resident professionals will be on the practice ground to offer advice. Full details are available on the website at www.doonbeglodge.com.
Doonbeg general manager, Joe Russell, said that given the impact Doonbeg has had on golf not alone in Ireland but worldwide, they felt it was fitting to mark this important anniversary. He noted that in its short history, Doonbeg had already been voted one of the world’s top 100 courses in a leading golf publication. Both the course and the five-star resort continue to receive accolades both at home and abroad and among the awards was one for European Golf Resort of the Year. “I think it is particularly significant how the course has become accepted as an important part of the Irish golf scene so quickly,” Mr Russell said.
Course designer, Greg Norman, said from the outset that Doonbeg was a course he wished to be remembered for. Following one of his recent visits to Doonbeg, Norman said he was delighted with how the course had progressed and how it had retained all of its links characteristics. “I set out to create a golf course that would be a true test of links golf and while I must let others deliver the ultimate verdict, I believe we have accomplished that goal. The course at Doonbeg continues to improve with time, which is a testament to the fine work of Jim McKenna and his course maintenance team.”

Junior Cup
WOODSTOCK qualified for the North Munster final in the junior cup when they won at Kilrush at the weekend.
On Saturday, Lahinch were winners over Ennis, Shannon beat East Clare, Dromoland Castle accounted for the host club and Woodstock beat Kilkee.
On Sunday, Shannon beat Lahinch and Woodstock overcame Dromoland Castle. In the afternoon, Woodstock overcame Shannon to progress to the next stage.

Lahinch
LAHINCH ladies’ Challenge Cup team defeated Shannon last week to qualify for the ILGU Inter-Club Munster quarter-final, which will be held at Nenagh on Saturday.
However, the club’s intermediate team was defeated by Dromoland Castle.
The men’s Junior Cup team beat Ennis on Saturday morning in Kilrush but they bowed out to Shannon on Sunday.
Work on upgrading the irrigation system for both courses is nearly completed, while new tee box posts and fairway discs will be installed on the old course over the comings weeks.
The ladies’ singles competition on the Castle Course last week was won by Valerie Shannon (8) with 37 points from Della Malone (15) with 34 points and Connie Fahy (18) with 33 points, Pamela Morgan won the gross with 27 points.
The men’s open singles on Thursday last was won by Kevin McGrath (5) with 38 points from John Dillon (6) with 35 points and Paul Condon (15) with 34 points.
Saturday’s men’s singles was won by Kevin McGrath (5) with 32 points from Gary Lavelle (5) with 31 points.
Sunday’s men’s fourball Stableford was won by Michael Skerritt (6) and Michael O’Loughlin (13) with 43 points from Ger Dunworth (6) and John Donovan (13) with 40 points.
The Castle Course hosted the Intermediate Scratch Cup on Sunday when the gross winner was Brian J Sexton (15) with 74 from Urban McMahon (13) with 78 and Jeffrey Foley (13) with 78.
Kiran Sarma (13) won the nett with 65.

Kilrush
THE Bridie Culligan mixed was the competition at Kilrush last Friday when the winners were Tom Coffey and Margaret Hehir from Pat Shannon and Anne Hogan. In third spot were Ollie McNamara and Mary Lyons followed by Mick Hemmings and Margaret Donnelly. The gross was won by Tom Prendeville and Margaret Clancy.
The new bridge leading to the ninth hole was officially opened by club members Paddy and Mary Carmody.
Kilrush hosted the North Munster Area competition of the GUI Junior Cup competition last weekend. Despite tough conditions, the course was in great condition for the event.
The July open week was deferred due to the inclement weather conditions and details will be posted on the noticeboard.
The Rush cups, an 18-hole mixed competition, will be played for on this Friday with a timesheet in operation.
There will be a singles Stableford competition on Sunday.
The captain’s (Declan O’Donovan) prize will be played for on Saturday, July 14 with the play-off for the prize taking place on Sunday, July 15. The captain’s plate, an 18-hole Stableford competition will take place on Sunday week.
Entries are now being accepted for the members’ cup, a men’s singles matchplay competition.

Woodstock
WILLIE Thompson and Eugene Phillips won the open seniors’ two-ball modified scramble over 16 holes at Woodstock with 46 points.
In the Wednesday open singles, Rory Callinan (13) was the winner with 41 points from Joe Guilfoyle (13) with 38 points and David Fitzgerald (1) with 37 points.
The mixed scramble was won by Liam McInerney, Mary O’Halloran and Seamus Kelly from Rory Callinan, Patsy Nugent and Michael O’Brien.
The winners of the captain’s (James Carmody) fourball were Alan (10) and Mark Barrett (16) with 47 points. They had two to spare over Hugh McGrath (10) and Greg Donegan (13) with 45 points.

Ennis
IN a ladies’ competition at Ennis last week in aid of the blind of Clare, Della Burns was the winner with 37 points from Pat Ramsey on 36, Maura Ryan on 36 and Brid Cunningham on 35.
The winner of the ladies’ Friday Open was Deirdre Molyneaux with 35 points.
In the weekly ladies’ seniors’ competition, the winners were Bernie Brooks, Susan O’Brien and Joan Murphy from Mary Walshe, Phil Butler and Ann Casey.
In Sunday’s men’s singles Stableford competition, Cathal O’Neill was the winner with 40 points from Gerry Bredin on a similar score, Patrick Garry was third with 39 points and Leo Herbert won the gross with 29 points.
Gerard Hannon won the Friday open singles from Peadar McMahon and Joseph Griffin and all three scored 39 points. Noel Whelan won the gross with 31 points.
Ennis Seniors held a modified scramble last week, the highlight of which was a hole-in-one by Tom McGrath at the seventh. This is Tom’s second hole-in-one in recent times.
The winners with 77 points were Sean O’Gorman, Mike Torpey and Conor Murphy from Tom Fox, Frank Landy and Sean Fitzpatrick on 74; Tim Kelly, Michael Connolly and Seamus Hanrahan on 72;  Paul Mockler, Ned Ryan and Willie Moloney on 69; George Dilger, Dan Spaight and Richard O’Connell on 69 and Pat Cusack, Michael Kenny and John Guinan on  67.

Shannon
THE Jim O’Donnell Memorial Singles was the competition at Shannon last weekend when the winner was Morgan Whelan (18) with 66. He had two strokes to spare from Dean McDarby (16), Neil O’Brien (6) with 69, Jim McNamara (8) with 69, James O’Flynn (17) with 69, Batt Crowley (12) with 70, Barry Murphy (14) with 70 and James Madden (8) with 70. James O’Donnell (2) won the gross with 71 from Paul O’Neill (1) with 73.
In the Wednesday open singles, Conor Griffin (14) won with 46 points from Adam McMahon (8) on 42 points and Noel Morgan (13) on 41 points. Ed Hickey (1) won the gross with 37 points.
In the ladies’ singles, Margaret Ryan (29) was the winner with 41 points from Michelle Pyke (11) on 38 and Vie Leahy (23) with 34. Jean Murphy Wright (9) won the gross with 23 points.

East Clare
THE winner of the men’s Intermediate Scratch Cup at East Clare was Paul Madden (14) with 85 gross from Jody McDermott (14) with a similar score and Teddy O’Hanlon (14) also with 85 gross. The nett was won by John Fahy (18) with 72 nett.
The men’s open singles winner was Richard Tuite (9) with 70 nett.
In the men’s seniors’ competition, the winners were Liam Nolan, Nick Ryan and Jim Fahey from John Farrell, Teddy Murphy and Frank Cox with third spot filled by Liam Skelly, Eamon Long and Willie Roche.
In the ladies’ seniors’ outing, the winners were Sue Casey, Kathleen Reddan and Hannah Guinnane from Georgina Wright, Noreen Skehan and Lillian Nihill.
The winners of the Friday nine-hole scramble were Ger Hogan, Joan Kinsella and Brigid Minogue from Tom Larkin, Teddy Murphy, Breda Reid and Phil Burke.
There will be an 18-hole singles stroke competition for men this weekend and an 18-hole Stableford competition for ladies.

Dromoland
DROMOLAND won the North Munster final of the mixed foursomes when they accounted for Adare Manor last Thursday.
The winners of the Holmpatrick fourball at Dromoland were Stephen O’Mullen and Tim Mullane with 43 points.
They now go on to represent Dromoland in the next stage of the competition.
Next week’s men’s competition is a three-ball scramble.
In the ladies’ section, Joan Ryan and Majella Cotgreave were the winners of the Eileen Murphy Foursomes from Geraldine Ryan and Kitty Quinn with third spot filled by Dorothy Brennan and Carola Wixted.
The weekly competition was won by Majella Cotgreave.

Kilkee
IN the Canon Breen V par competition at Kilkee, the winner was Graham Reidy with four-up from Christy Clancy on three-up and Seamus Walsh on one-up.

Gort
THE winners of the men’s fourball at Gort at the weekend were Con O’Donoghue (15) and Stephen Wilson (8) with 47 points. In second place, a point behind, were John Whealan (7) and Vincent Egan (17) and they were followed by Seamus Noone (8) and John Melville (11) with 43 points. In the Monday open singles, Cathal Keogh (15) Galway was the winner with 43 points from Enda Finn (10) with a similar score and Ronan Higgins (8) with 40 points. Ryan Boyle (4) won the gross with 38 points. There will be a singles Stableford competition this weekend, while the Monday open singles will continue.
In the ladies’ section, the singles winner on Sunday was Anne Kerins (22) with 39 points from Catherine Clancy (25) with 35 points.
The winner of the 18-hole stroke competition was Ann Jordan (33) 72 from Bernie Diskin (12) 73.
In the Monday open singles, the winner was Siobhán Forde (12) with 34 points from Gabrielle Warnock (22) with 33 points.
This Saturday, Regina Malone’s captain’s prize will be played for.

Portumna
PORTUMNA ran a very successful open week, which concluded last Sunday.
On Monday, June 25 the men’s singles competition was won by John Cleary (6) with 42 points from Pat Flynn (9) with a similar score, Ian Price (17) with 41 points and Willie Nee (12) with 40 points. JP McLoughlin (scratch) won the gross with 40 points.
On Wednesday, an 18-hole Stableford competition was won by Mark Hoary (19) with 44 points from Cathal O’Byrne (4) with 42 points, Aongus Egan (19) with 39 points and Dermot O’Brien (13) with 38 points, Sean Cleary (2) won the gross with 36 points.
On Thursday, the competition was an open threeball and the winners were Gerry Madden (12), James Porter (12) and Mary Madden (21) with 50 points from Gene (16) and John McEntee (11) and Frank Kilkenny (9) with 49 points. In third spot were Tom Moloney (14), Ollie Flanagan (14) and Martin Sullivan (16) also with 49 points.
The competition on Friday was a men’s 18-hole stroke and the winner was Bernard Murtagh (6) with 69 nett from Pádraig Hynes (5) with a similar score. Martin Kennedy (9) was third with 70 nett followed by Patrick Maher (19) with 71 nett. JP McLoughlin (scratch) won the gross with 70.
The weekend competition was a team event and the winners were:
1. John O Gorman (17), Hugh Devery (28), Des Clarke (20) and Niall Kelly (14) with 106 points; 2. Philip (19) and Stephen Madden (15), Mike Coniry (17) and Patrick Cleary (14) with 101 points. In third spot were Sean Dunne (13), Gerry Heffernan (18), Mike Coniry (17) and Dermot Corcoran (17) with 98 points and they were followed by Gerry (12), Mary (21) and Ronan Madden (14) and James Porter (12) with 96 points.
The ladies’ masters will be the competition this Sunday, while there will be a ladies’ open singles on Tuesday.
The first junior golf camp will start on Wednesday, July 11 and will run for three days. Further details are available from Jim Hynes at 087 6411711.

Pitch and putt
CILL na Móna Pitch and Putt Ladies’ Munster strokeplay finals will take place this Sunday. This is the first time the Clare club will host this event and all involved are eagerly looking forward to the competition.
There are three categories, senior, intermediate and junior. Cill na Móna’s Siobhán Commane, daughter of club proprietors, Martin and Ann, is the current holder of the junior title and she will be hoping home advantage will help as she attempts to retain the title.
Cill na Móna is also home to two other Munster champions. Kitty Murphy was the Munster junior matchplay winner in 2011 and Helen Daly is the Munster Intermediate matchplay winner in 2012.
Others from the club who will be taking part in this weekend’s event include Connie McLoughlin, Marie O’Connor, Mary Marrinan, Teresa Fitzgibbon and Mary Murphy.
Competition will get underway at 10am and continue throughout the day.
Last Sunday, the club hosted the scratch cup competitions when the overall winner was Tom Hanley from Bruff; Marty Fawl from the Clare Road won the senior section, while the intermediate section was won by Ger Hanrahan from the host club. William Hillery won the junior section and John Cunningham from Bruff won the last 18 category. The winner of the ladies’ section was Eleanor Walsh from Fermoy.

County strokeplay
THE county pitch and putt strokeplay championship was held at the Clare Road Club on Sunday when the winner of the senior section was Ger Hanrahan. Niall Seery won the intermediate title, while Denis McElligott won the junior section.