Spring matchplay gets underway at Lahinch

THE draw has been made made for the Bogberry Spring matchplay men’s competition at Lahinch and rounds one and two must be completed by May 2. Details of the pairings are posted on the notice board.
Shane Duggan (9) and Frank Keane (11) were the winners of the men’s fourball Stableford competition at Lahinch with 45 points from Ronan Ryder (16) and Tommy Lenehan (10) with 43 points.
In the ladies’ singles v par competition on Monday, Rachel Maher (20) was the winner with two up from Gráinne D’Alton (5), who had a similar score. Gráinne Hennessy (15) with a level round was in third spot, while the gross was won by Valerie Hassett (6) with four down.

Woodstock
MAURA Umlawski was the winner of the ladies’ 18-hole Stableford competition at Woodstock last week with 32 points from Bernie Power on 31 points. Sunday’s 18-hole Stableford competition was won by Teresa Sherlock with 36 points from Maura Umlawski on 35 points.
There will be a similar competition on Sunday with the draw for partners at 11.50am.
After round five of the winter league, James Carmody’s team leads with 304 points from Nick Germaine’s team on 303, George Smith on 302, John O’Connor on 299, Adrian Kearney on 299 and Noel Mulcahy on 299.
The winner of the Sunday singles was Brendan McMahon (16) with 43 points from Pat Keane (11) on a similar score.
Round six in the league will take place this weekend.

Ennis
THE winners of the ladies’ seniors outing at Ennis were Pat Lacey, Ann Casey and Kathleen Frehill on 471/3 points from Mary Walsh, Mary Glynn and Claire Ruane on 481/6 points.
In the ladies’ weekly 18-hole competition, Derry Nalty was the winner with 38 points from Phil Butler, who had a similar score. Kitty Morris was third on 37 points and Maura McNicholas won the gross with 33 points.
In the Saturday club scramble the winners were Nancy Burke, Leo Herbert and Brian Kilker on 67 points from Mary McMahon, Luke Coote and Noel Whelan with 67 points. In third spot were Rita O’Brien, Hugh Nalty and Noel Pilkington on 65 points.
In the men’s scotch foursomes at the weekend, Niall Howard and Gary Duggan were the winners with 62.5 from Walter O’Brien and Matt Molyneaux on 63. Third place was filled by Ian and Sean Myatt on 64, followed by Pat and Darragh Murphy with 64.5.
In the Dr Rodgers Shield team competition, the winners with 96 points were Michael Kenny, Michael Culliney, Matt Flynn and Sean Ryan, followed by Ger Hanrahan, Brendan A Considine, Charlie McEnery and Eamon Kelly with 94 points. In third place, also with 94 points, were Pierce Cahill, Ger Bredin, Andy Cregan and Jim J Casey.

Dromoland
NIALL Geraghty was the winner of the men’s Stableford at Dromoland with 40 points from Dermot O’Neill, who had a similar score. Jimmy McManus was third with 39 points.
In the ladies’ weekly competition, Mairéad Bergin and Suzanne McConway were the winners of the Granagh Cup.
This weekend there will be an 18-hole Stableford competition with re-entry.

Doonbeg Links
LAST Sunday’s singles competition at Doonbeg Links was won by Liam Hayes with 40 points from Michael Bermingham on 38 points and Nigel Dillon on 36 points. The previous week’s singles was won by Pat O’Malley with 37 points from Kieran Golden on 35 points and Paddy O’Grady on 33 points.
The presidents’ (Michael Bermingham and Ita Mangan) prizes will be played for on April 10. The fourball matchplay final is to be played this week.

East Clare
IN the ladies’ golfer of the year competition at East Clare last week, Leslie O’Flynn was the winner with 67 nett from Mairéad Twomey on 70. The category winners were Ciara Magill with 71, Terry Mulvihill with 70 and Deirdre Cooney with 74.
In the men’s matchplay qualifier, Tony Stuart (14) won with 44 points from John Duffy (16) with a similar score with third spot filled by Patsy Kett (13) on 43 points.
In the ladies’ seniors outing last week, the winners were Nancy Starr, Mary Collins and Agnes O’Neill from Jean Fleming, Hilda McHugh and Pat Williams. The men’s seniors outing was won by Batt Skehan, Sean Farrell and John Walsh from Sean Bolton, Noel Enright and Steve Symes.
The men’s fourball matchplay qualifier will take place this weekend, while the ladies will have a foursomes competition.

Kilrush
IN the Mary Gleeson-supported ladies competition at Kilrush, Mary Young kept up the Young name so synonymous with golf by winning on the back nine with 26 points from Marion Brennan. In third spot was Dolores Reidy with 25 points. Kilmihil was represented in fourth by Anne Coen with 24 points.
The men’s 12-hole competition played on Sunday was won by Padraic Cotter with 31 points followed by Ciaran Lillis with 30 points.
In the men’s seniors outing last Wednesday, the winners were Denis Nagle, Michael Hemmings and Tom O’Dea from Kieran Lillis, Noel Enright and Mick Lane with third spot filled by TJ Lyons, PW Glynn and Barry Taylor.
The first 18-hole competition of the season will take place on Sunday and a timesheet will operate.
The club will hold a race night on April 15 to help raise funds for further developments on the course.

Shannon
THE ladies’ 18-hole singles competition at Shannon saw ex-officio Marie Hogan capture the honours with 38 points by virtue of a better back nine from Hilary Clein. Lady captain Mary O’Brien was third with 37 points, while the gross was captured by Jean Murphy Wright with 27 points.
The Wednesday open singles has recommenced and Michael (Wedge) McInerney was the first winner of the season with 43 points. Michael turned with 23 points, highlighted by a birdie at the eighth. A solid back nine of 20 points was sufficient to see him home by two from Dave Heffernan and James Begley, who both returned 41 points. The gross was captured by Ed Hickey with one under par on 37 points.
The second men’s golfer of the year competition, the March medal, took place last weekend and saw ex-Young Munster stalwart Jim McNamara capture the spoils with 66 nett. Jim covered the outward nine in three over and started his back nine with five successive pars. Back-to-back bogies at 15 and 16 were followed by pars at 17 and 18, which saw Jim victorious by one shot from Noel Morgan and Dermot Finnan, both returning 67 nett. The gross was captured by Paul O’Neill with one under par, 69. Bryan Power recorded a hole in one on the 17th.
The April men’s club fourball will be the competition this weekend.

Gort
MATTHEW O’Halloran was the winner of the men’s subscription stakes at Gort on Sunday. In this golfer of the year competition, he returned 42 points to win by one from Ray Dolan with Niall O’Shaughnessy, also with 41 points, in third spot followed by George Fahey who also scored 41 points. David Quirke won the gross with 33 points.
The winner of the Monday open singles was Christy O’Connor with 41 points from Eanna Melville on a similar score.
There will be an 18-hole scotch foursomes for men this weekend, while a team of four classic will commence on April 1.
In the ladies’ spring league final, the winners were Maura Hanrahan, Christina Daly, Ruth Naughton, Phil Mulkerrins and Regina Malone. There will be an 18-hole singles Stableford competition for ladies next Monday.

Portumna
THE first 18-hole Stableford competition of the season took place over the weekend at Portumna when the winner was Martin Kennedy (9) with 41 points from Patrick Kearney (19) with 40 points, Dick Quinlivan (12) with 39 points and Basil Kennedy (10) with 39 points. JP McLoughlin (1) won the gross with 31 points.
In the Monday open singles, Jerry Sheeran (18) was the winner with 39 points from Mike Cowan (18) with a similar score. Ronan Nevin (14) was third with 37 points, while Sean Cleary (3) won the gross with 37 points.
Inesa Kazakecivinte was the winner of the ladies’ 18-hole competition from Birgit Degenhardy with Catherine Fahy in third spot.
Last week’s winner in the seniors competition was Des Lynch (17) with 30 points from John Hynes (19) with 28 points and Mike Carty (14) with 27 points.
There will be a men’s open fourball competition this weekend. The men’s committee will meet next Tuesday, while the parent club will meet on Tuesday, April 12.

Ennis seniors
THERE was a big entry for the Ennis seniors modified fourball last week when the winners with 41 points were James Ball and Ger Hanrahan, followed by Sean Brennan and Sean O’Gorman with 40 points. In third spot with 39 points were John Guilfoyle and John Joe Keane, followed by Michael Torpey and Tony Kehoe with 39, Jimmy McNamara and Tom O’Flaherty with 38, Pat Rutherford and Tom Pilkington with 38, Pierce Cahill and Larry Parks with 37, John Stack and Jimmy Kerins with 37.

Spanish Point
LAST Saturday and Sunday the men’s club at Spanish Point held their annual fundraiser. In sunny conditions, they were pleased with the support with nearly one-third of the male members supporting the competition. It was played as a modified team-of-three scramble, taking the best drive at each hole and off three quarters handicap.
Falling just short of averaging three points a hole, Eoghan O’Loughlin (5), Brendan Sexton (14) and Mervin Hehir (14) were the outright winners with 53 points and they were followed by Pat Lorrigan (16), Mike O’Connor (11) and Aidan Sexton (15), who scored 52 points. Pat also came third with team mates Bernie O’Halloran (20) and Martin Casey (18) shooting 52 points, while promising juniors Conor Egan (13) Ross Burke (19) and golfer of the year for 2010, Tom Mernagh (5) had a score of 51 points to finish fourth. The prize for nearest to the pin went to Len Wilson on the sixth, while Shane Considine won the longest drive.
On Friday there was a big entry in the open competition and the winner was John Ryan (16) with 41 points from Stephen Cunningham (25)  with 40 points. They were followed by David Egan (14) with 39 points.
In the seniors open, Gerry Meade (16) was the winner with 39 points from David Fitzgerald (15) on 38 points.
This weekend, Spanish Point travel to take on Ringenane in Kinsale, while on Saturday week they will play Listowel in the Munster Towns Cup.

Kilkee
THE singles winner in week four of the spring league at Kilkee was Pat Harte (13) with 37 points, while the winning team comprised B Harte (11), L Mullane (12), G Reidy (18), T Carr (18), C Clancy (20) and M Daly (25) with 127 points.

Sixmilebridge
JODY McDermott was the winner of the Sixmilebridge society outing with 38 points from Kevin Whelan and Russ Throw. The winners of the nines were Bobby Deegan and Mervyn Fraiser, while the category winners were John Chaplin and Mike Ryan.

Clarecastle
PJ Barry was the winner of the recent Clarecastle society outing to Galway Bay. John McGrath was second, with Willie Griffin taking third prize. Liam Barry and Pascal Russell claimed the nines and Eamon Callinan was the winner of the guests’ section. The society’s next outing is to Gort on Saturday, April 9.

Cooraclare-Cree
THE Cooraclare/Cree society will hold its next outing this Saturday in Gort. Tee-time is 2pm and further details are available from captain, Michael Studdert on 087 2299476.

Éire Óg
THE Éire Óg society will hold its first outing of 2011 to Portumna on Saturday when the tee is available from 9am. Members are asked to contact secretary Tommy Corbett at 086 3895895 to secure a time.

Pitch and putt
PJ Considine was the winner of the bronze trophy at the Clare Road Pitch and Putt Club on Sunday when Joseph McElligott was second. Kenneth Kerin won the gross.