Second South title for Ward

A SEVEN-year gap was bridged at Lahinch on Wednesday afternoon when Simon Ward captured the South of Ireland amateur golf title. Victory over Kilkenny’s Paul O’Hara at the first tie hole saw the Louth clubman win back a title he previously held in 2006.
They were all square after nine and while Ward went ahead early on the back nine, O’Hara fought back to level.

Ward three-putted the 16th and O’Hara had a similar experience on the 17th as they both looked a little nervous. They halved the 18th in par, before Ward captured the title with a par at the 19th when O’Hara missed a 4ft putt to extend the match. The final was refereed by local man Kevin Glynn, who is a GUI official.

Hopes of a Clare win in the 112th  South of Ireland Amateur Golf Championship ended on Tuesday morning when Shannon’s Ed Hickey was beaten by Alex Gleeson, who went on to contest the semi-final.

Hickey was the last of the Clare contingent in the race for this year’s title, which produced some great golf.

Weather conditions were ideal as the 2013 championship got underway on Saturday but later that evening play was suspended for about an hour due to thunder.

Barry Reddan from County Louth, winner of the title in 1987, and his first-round opponent, Colin Cunningham from Carton House, were disqualified when they resumed play while the competition was still suspended due to the weather.

This resulted in Dromoland’s Tony Cleary, who was awaiting the winner, getting a bye into round three, where he was beaten by Alex Gleeson, who went on to reach the semi-finals.

The semi-finalists and finalists had to contend with heavy rain on Wednesday when the championship again attracted a big attendance of spectators.

Evan Farrell from Ardee and Stuart Bleakley from Shandon Park were the first two into this year’s competition when they teed off at 7am on Saturday morning.

One hundred and ninety golfers took part in the competition, which produced 64 matches on both Saturday and Sunday.

Ennis man Stephen Loftus, who plays out of Lahinch, made a winning start with a 5 and 3 win over Harry Coyne from Carton House but he bowed out on Sunday to Simon Ward.

The first Clareman into the race was Thomas Neenan from the host club but he bowed out to Eoin O’Sullivan (the Island) on Saturday morning.

Spanish Point’s Eoghan O’Loughlin also made his exit on Saturday when he fell to Jason Rackard from Bunclody.

Others to lose out at this stage were Enda Cradock from Gort, Paul O’Neill (Shannon), Sean Cleary (Portumna), Bob Loftus (Lahinch), Kieran Cunnane (Woodstock) and Daniel Brennan (Shannon).

Title holder Pat Murray from Limerick bowed out of this year’s contest on Monday evening, when he was beaten on the 19th by Brian McSweeney, who lost out in Tuesday’s quarter-finals to Alex Gleeson.

In Wednesday morning’s semi-finals, O’Hara from Kilkenny had a 6 and 5 win over Ryan McKinstry (Cairndhu), while Ward was a 2 and 1 winner over Gleeson.