This week's golfing roundup
Dowling lands first scratch cup in Cork
MARYDowling of New Ross claimed the first scratch cup of her career with a 36-hole total of four-under-par at the Cork Scratch Cup, sponsored by Ford, on Saturday. Dowling produced a superb opening round of three-under-par 71 – which was matched by Douglas' Karen O'Neill, before adding a second round of 73 to finish with a total of 144 and win by a single stroke from O'Neill.
Third was Cork’s Gillian O’Leary on 149.
- ST ANNE'Shave recently competed the latest development of its links, and to celebrate the occasion they are holding a festival of golf from Monday, April 26th, to Friday 30th. There will be open competitions each day with a visitor entry fee of just € 20. Book tee-times at www.stanneslinksgolf.com or by phoning 01-8336471.
- THEREare still a few vacancies on the time-sheet for the Ladies Scratch Cup at Hermitage GC, Lucan, Co Dublin on Sunday, May 2nd. Entry forms are available from the club or www.hermitagegolf.ie or the ILGU website, www.ilgu.ie.
- THELoreto Past Pupils Union will hold its 68th annual outing in the Hermitage GC on Friday, April 30th. The first Loreto Golf Society outing took place in 1942 with 25 women playing at the same venue. Tee-times are available from 10am-3.30pm. Contact Judy Murray on 086 3611 788.
Greystones to stage golf and quiz for worthy cause
GREYSTONES will stage a combined team golf and table quiz, with a shotgun start at 3pm, followed by the quiz at 8pm, on Friday, April 30th. Hosted by RTÉ's George Hamilton, all profits from the day will go towards Emma's Cuba Cycle Challenge in aid of the the Alzheimer Society of Ireland.
The format for the day is a four-person, any combination, team competition. Scores from the golf will be carried over to the table quiz for a combined scoring process. In the event one cannot make both events, the quiz is open for non-golfers as well, with scoring for this from the quiz only.
The cost is € 200 per team for golf, dinner and table quiz. For table quiz only, € 60.
- THISyear's Concern Worldwide Golf Classic will take place in Druids Glen on Friday, May 28th. The event was launched by John Treacy, Olympic silver medallist and chairperson of the Concern Golf Classic, RTÉ's Ronan Collinsand Denis Kane, chief executive of Druid's Glen, last week.
Entry costs € 1,200 per team of four to include golf, pre-golf lunch, post-golf dinner and prizes for the first six teams.
All proceeds raised on the day will support a Concern livelihood programme in Ethiopia which began in Dessie Zuria in 2008.
To sign up for the Concern Golf Classic call 01 417 7756 or log on to www.concern.net/golf for more information.
Carton stages historic classic
CARTON House is returning to its roots on Friday, May 7th, with the staging of the fourth annual Centre for the Study of Historic Irish Houses and Estates Classic.
This year, the proceeds of the event will support three major research projects – The Great Famine and the Irish Country House, 1845-51; Music in the Irish Country House, and Political and Social Connections between Irish and Yorkshire Landed Families and Estates.
The format for the day will be teams of four and the cost to include golf and dinner is €500 per team. Inquiries to Ciarán Reilly 086-1751686 or Ciaran.J.Reilly@nuim.ie.
Giles takes gold at final Hilary outing
ROBERT Giles, professional at Greenore Golf Club, captured the gold medal on a countback from fellow professional Gary Cullen from Beaverstown for the overall best nett scores as the Hilary Golf Society season closed at Sutton GC last week.
Tied at the top of the leaderboard entering the final round, Giles and Cullen carded level-par rounds of 68, but Giles won on a countback for the Dave Pelz gold medal. The Niall O’Brien silver medal went to Sutton’s Derek Downey, who carded the best aggregate gross scores for amateurs in the series.
Paddy Walshe, from Royal Dublin, won the final event with a nett 63 off a five handicap from Portmarnock’s Jim Harnett. Terry Lilly from Slade Valley was third with 66.
The best gross score went to Danny Coyle from Co Louth with 68, while the team prize was won by Walshe, Harnett and Seamus McParland from Greenore with 55.
Kiely designs Irish Open trophy
MICHELLE Kiely, a second year student from the National College of Art and Design, has won the competition to design the trophy for this year’s Irish Open, which takes place at Killarney Golf Club over the August Bank Holiday weekend from July 29th to August 1st.
The 20-year-old, who is from Cork, took part in the design competition, which was open to students of the National College of Art and Design.
The sponsors, 3, gave the students a brief to create an innovative and contemporary trophy for this year’s event. Eighteen students were selected to design the trophy and three from that group were shortlisted to be interviewed by a panel of judges. Kiely was chosen ahead of runners-up Sarah Nelson and Julia Schreckenback.
The trophy, which is called Perfect Swing, is made from cut and polished crystal and sterling silver. The concept, according to the winner, is it “is inspired by the swing of the golf club on teeing off but represents the complete game from the perfect starting swing to the final act of putting the ball”.
The Irish Open Trophy will go into production and will be unveiled to the public later this month.
Morgan and Arthurs claim trophy
MULLINGAR'S Des Morgan(+3) and Eoin Arthurs(+2) from Forrest Little shot excellent rounds of 71 and 70 to win the Centenary Scratch Foursomes Trophy at Grange on Sunday. The 36-hole event on the Championship course attracted a quality field with 33 players off scratch or better.
Morgan and Arthurs' total of 141 saw them win by four strokes. Runners-up were Jim Carvill(+1) from Warrenpoint and Conor Doran(+2) from Banbridge with the best of the 145s. Third were the Greystones' pairing of Alan Condron(+2) and Paul Dunne(+2).
The overall best nett was won by Ronan Flood(2) and Seán O'Flaherty(1) from Hermitage on 146. The two 18-hole gross winners were Pat Errityand John Hughesfrom the European Club on 72, with the second 18 gross going to Craig Martin(Kilkenny) and James Monaghan(The Island) on 73. The two nett 18-hole winners were Kevinand Seán Flanagan(Co Sligo) and the host club's Jack Pierseand Eoin Dolan.
