SHORT GAME:GLENCULLEN used home advantage to great effect to capture the Best Cup for the first time with a 6-4 win over Newlands.
Level 2½-2½ after the first leg, Glencullen took the second leg of the final 3½-1½ to claim the first pennant for the club, with Séamus Ryan and Brendan McGovern getting the vital winning point with a 2 and 1 win over Ger Walsh and Denis Morris.
Some 34 clubs from all over Dublin took part in the Best Cup 2010. The format for this ever popular competition is five fourball matches for 19+ handicappers. Current handicaps are involved and matches are played home and away on the same day up to the final.
ONFriday last in West Waterford's Friday Blues competition, Senior Cup player Mark Shanahan smashed the existing course record by recording nine birdies and nine pars in an incredible round of 63 gross.
THEmixture of youth and experience proved a successful combination at The Island in recent weeks when three-handicapper Paul McBride teamed up with Willie O'Rourke, 61 years his senior, to win two fourballs in the month of August, scoring 42 points on both occasions.
McBride, winner of the Leinster under-15 championship, was back in the winners’ enclosure again last week winning the midweek fourball with John Martin.
Only Munster slot left to be filled in Race to St Andrews
THE “Race to St Andrews” to qualify for the All-Ireland Holmpatrick Cup 36-hole final has just the Munster slot to be filled. Last week at Enniskillen, David Knox (11) and Stuart Gauld (13) took Foyle GC to the final for the first time with 47 points from Strandhill’s Pat Caffrey (15) and Con Hegarty (25) on 46 in the Connaught/Ulster decider.
On Sunday at Elm Park, Curragh’s Tom Behan (10) and Frank Archibald (15) with a back nine of 21 points, outscored the Murphy brothers from Wexford, David (13) and Philip (12) with 39 points to take the Leinster title.
Also at the same venue Newlands retained the Dublin pennant when Jeremy Cleary (5) and Mick O’Toole (13) had a winning score of 42 points, fighting off the Howth pairing of Greg Keegan (20) and Mike Woods (12).
Clubs from all four provinces have participated since May in preliminary competitions to reach the provincial finals. The Holmpatrick Cup is an annual fund raising event for The National Council for the Blind of Ireland (NCBI), with the finals scheduled for the New and Old courses at St Andrews on October 11th and 12th.
AFTERwins over Foxrock, Milltown, Edmondstown and Dun Laoghaire in the final, Kilmashogue – only 15 years old and based in the grounds of St Columba's College in Dublin – claimed the Bloom Cup, their first major interclub success.
Ennis carry off Diamond Trophy
IT took an extra hole for Ennis to win the JB Carr Diamond Trophy, sponsored by Newbridge Silver, at Woodenbridge GC when the Munster champions overcame the holders Galway GC 3½-1½ in an exciting final.
It was the first time Ennis reached the finals, after beating The Island in the semi-final 3-2, while Galway accounted for Ballybofey and Stranorlar in the other semi-final.
With the sides level at two matches each it was left to two-handicapper Noel Payne and his partner Pat Cahill to win the vital third point against Galway’s Joe Corless and Michael Corcoran at the 19th in the deciding match.
Legends arrange ‘Royals’ pilgrimage
IRELAND’S high profile Legends Golf Society have arranged a special pilgrimage involving three of the world’s top links courses as the centrepiece of their 20th anniversary celebrations.
The “Three Royals” trip this week will embrace British Open championship venues Royal Birkdale, Royal Liverpool and Royal Lytham St Annes.
The society was formed by Declan O’Donoghue and friend Philip Walton in 1990, the year Walton scored his breakthrough victory on the European Tour in the French Open and featured on the winning Ireland team in the Dunhill Cup at St Andrews.
Over the years the society has honoured many golfing legends, including Harry Bradshaw, Christy O’Connor Snr, Joe Carr, Peter Alliss, Peter Dobereiner, Bob Torrance, John Jacobs, Peter Thomson, Michael Bonallack, Doug Sanders and the late Mark McCormack.
Club challenge finale in Algarve
THREE new clubs, Hermitage, (Leinster champions), Castle Hume (Ulster champions) and Newcastle West (Munster champions) will join Connacht champions Portumna at the Musgrave Crumlin Hospital Club Challenge All-Ireland final in the Algarve, Portugal, from October 15th-18th over the Pinta and Morgado courses.
The competition, in it’s 13th year, will have a new champion as none of these clubs has taken the All-Ireland pennant and trophy previously. The teams will be accompanied by their club captains, with the final being played over 36 holes in singles Stableford and the rumble format.
The competition has raised €1.25 million and all funds raised go directly to the hospital thanks to the support from the Musgrave Group for St Anne’s Ward (dedicated burns unit), which was built by the company.
Tournament co-ordinator Pat Cashman would like extra clubs to get involved and can enter the 2011 competition by emailing litia@eircom.net.
The Leinster final will again be held at the Hermitage on Thursday, August 25th, the Connacht and Ulster finals at Roscommon GC on Thursday, September 1st, and the Munster final will be at Muskerry on Monday, September 5th.
Moynihan claims ace number four
HOLES in one are rare for most of us, but on Sunday on the Lackabane course in Killarney Anne Moynihan, an eight-handicapper, claimed her fourth ace when she holed out with a seven iron at the par 3 fifth. The hole in one helped her to claim the gross prize with 25 points in the weekly singles competition, which was won by Betty O’Farrell (20) with 36 points.
FOR over 50 years captains and past captains of golf clubs in Wicklow have competed annually for the Cock of the Walk trophy, while raising funds for charity. This year’s event was hosted by Roundwood GC, where captain Gerry Kennedy, and Paul Quinn of Cock of the Walk presented a cheque for € 2,400 to John O’Shea from Goal, on behalf of the 96 captains representing the 16 Wicklow clubs.
The format for the day was Scotch Foursomes and Blainroe Golf Club won this year’s trophy, beating Roundwood GC into second place by one shot.
