Sarah challenges for Portuguese title

Ennis Golf Club’s Sarah Cunningham is one of 11 Irish players taking part in the Portuguese Ladies’ Amateur Open, which starts in Montado in Lisbon this Thursday.
Sarah has represented Munster and Ireland at junior level as well as being a member of the Munster Senior Cup team. She was awarded a sports scholarship to NUI Maynooth.
Leona Maguire from Slieve Russell will defend the title she won last year in the 72-hole event.
The 82nd Portuguese Amateur marks the start of the 2012 ladies’ international season in Europe.The event tees off with three stroke-play rounds over Thursday, Friday and Saturday with the top 40 players and ties competing over a final 18 holes on Sunday to decide the champion.
Ireland will also defend their Nations Cup, having defeated France by nine shots last year.

Dromoland
The winter league was the attraction at Dromoland at the weekend when the winner on the day was John Collins with 41 points.
The first team on Sunday comprised Sean Shanahan, PJ Hehir, Mark Lennon, Killian Howard and Damien Ryan. In second place were Darren Piccolo, Sean McMahon, Barry Moloney, Mick Shinkwin and Glenn Stackpool while joint third were Declan O’Leary, Kieran McDermott, Martin O’Mahoney, Philip Naughton and Joe Moran and the team of Sean Burns, Aaron Duggan, John O’Neill, David Crowe and Michael O’Riordan.
Round two takes place this weekend when the format will be singles Stableford.

Woodstock
The winners of the weekly seniors competition, a modified team scramble, were Jim McMahon and Brendan McNamara with 43 points.

Doonbeg Links
At the annual general meeting of Doonbeg Links Club, Seamus Griffin was elected captain for 2012 with Michael Bermingham appointed as president. James Griffin is the club secretary with Seanie Moloney elected to the post of treasurer. Kevin Hayes will be the competition secretary and the handicap committee comprises Diarmaid O’Donnell, John McGuire, Declan Conway and Seamus Griffin. Pat Cotter will be the Pierce Purcell team manager with Diarmaid O’Donnell as the Bruen team manager.
Tributes were paid to Kevin Hayes, outgoing captain and Johnny Igoe, outgoing treasurer, for their work within the club over recent years.The first competition of the new season will be on this Sunday, while the captain’s drive-in is scheduled for February.

Ennis
Ennis Seniors held a three-ball modified scramble last week when the winners were Michael Finn, Maurice Walsh and Sean Ryan with 86 points followed by Tom Pilkington, Jimmy McNamara and Dick Burke on 85. In third place were Bill Leacy, John Keane and Tim Kelly on 84 followed by Willie Moloney, Paul Higgins and Willie Walsh on 82, Michael Torpey, Eamon Murphy and Kevin Murray on 80, Michael Cummins, Michael Considine and Michael Carmody on 79, Dick Herbert, Vincent Gardiner and Bobby Burke on 79, Luke Coote, Charlie McEnery and Frank Landy on 79 with ninth place filled by Johnny Cullinan, Dave Timlin and John White.
The weekly fourball at Ennis at the weekend was over 15 holes and the winners were Jason Woods and Johnnie Finn with 41 points from Ger Hanrahan and BA Considine, who had a similar score. In third spot with 40 points were Luke Coote and Gerry Gilligan. 

Spanish Point
The senior open and the open day on Fridays will continue at Spanish Point in the coming weeks.
There was a good entry for last week’s senior open when the winner was Brendan Reddan (16) with 38 points. Last weekend’s competition was a fourball betterball and the winners were Brendan Sexton (14) and Martin Casey (19) with 41 points from Martin Glenny (14) and John Meere (14) also with 41 points. The winter/spring schedule continues this weekend with a team of three or four modified scramble and a timesheet is in the clubhouse. 

Kilrush
The winner of the weekly singles competition at Kilrush last week was Noel Thornton with 28 points from Jimmy McSwiggan, who had a similar score. In the previous week’s competition, Pat Murtagh was the winner with 28 points from Gabrielle Looney on 27.
The seniors scramble was won by Tom Cleary, Noel Cooney, Matt Fitzpatrick and Maurice Roche from Jim McSwiggan, Noel Haier and Paddy Carmody with third spot filled by John Robinson, Brendan McNamara and Tom Prendeville.
The spring league will commence on Sunday, February 12 and the duration of the league is four weeks, with play-offs taking place on week five.The captains’ drive-in will take place on Sunday, February 5 at 1.30pm with a scramble at 2pm.

East Clare
The winners of the men’s 14-hole fourball competition at East Clare were Brian Lenihan (11) and Brendan Foley (10) with 40 points.
In the men’s seniors outing, the winners were Brendan Moloney, Oliver Quigney and Michael Drew from Kieran Sheedy, Jack Manly and Paddy O’Connor, with third spot filled by Denis Collins, Jackie McHugh and Finbarr Ryan.
In the ladies’ nine-hole scramble the winners were Catherine Minogue, Pat Williams and Margaret Lynch from Siobhán Shanahan, Anne Harte and Marie A Kelly.
The winner of the ladies’ seniors outing was Mary Collins from Nancy Starr and Mary Brennan. The ladies’ club will have a nine-hole three-club competition on Sunday when the draw will take place in the clubhouse at 12.15pm. The men’s club will have a 14-hole two-ball scramble.
The January segment of the winter league is drawing to a close and Michael Stritch’s team has established a solid lead at this stage.

Shannon
John Gubbins (14) was the winner of the men’s 15-hole singles competition at Shannon with 42 points. He had three to spare over Maldwyn Roberts (21) with Kieran Considine (10) in third spot, also with 39 points.  William O’Gorman (9) won the gross with 31 points.
The Wednesday singles was won by Gearóid Dillon (22) with 39 points from Morgan Whelan (18) with 39 points and Paul McElligott (12) with 38 points.
Gort
The men’s 18-hole singles at Gort at the weekend was won by Michael Grealy with 45 points from Gerry Fogarty on 42, James Mulqueen on 40 and Oliver Curtin on 39. Eamonn Morrissey won the gross with 32 points. There will be a similar competition this weekend.
The ladies’ spring league will continue until Tuesday, March 6.

Lahinch
Last week’s ladies’ singles at Lahinch was won by Geraldine O’Mahoney (21) with 40 points from Maria Nolan (25) with 35 points and Jenny Hennessy (6) with 35 points.
Saturday’s men’s singles was won by John Madden (18) with 38 points from Paul O’Brien (5) with 36 points and Michael Hennessy (6) with 34 points.
In the men’s fourball competition on Sunday the winners were Gerry Buckley (10) and Liam Duggan (14) with 43 points from Stephen (5) and Michael Hennessy (6) with 41 points.

Portumna
The winners of the men’s singles competition at Portumna at the weekend were Leo Kelly (7) (category 0-10) with 32 points, Joe Power (13), category 11-14 with 32 points, Joe Cormican (18), category 15-18 with 30 points, Martin Quinn (20), category 19 and over with 31 points and Gerry Cavanagh (19) seniors with 31 points.

Pitch and putt
The winners of the three-ball scramble at the Clare Road Pitch and Putt Club on Sunday were Tommy Kelly, Paddy Sheedy and Ger Hanrahan.