The County Matchplay Finals were on today in Tralee.
Victorious was Damien Fleming.
Jason O’Connor reports
The competitive season came to an end with the staging of the County Adult Matchplay Championships in Tralee. Thankfully the course held up despite the horrendous conditions the night before as the sun shone for the latter stages on the day.
In the Senior Mens grade Deerpark’s Damien Fleming made it three-in-a-row with a 1up victory on the last hole over Jason Cregan from the host club as Cregan nearly got a hole in one on the last to bring it to sudden death. However Damien sank a difficult 10ft uphill putt to hold on for the win as it was his second consecutive double at county level following his County Senior Strokeplay win back in May. Damien had defeated Tralee’s Jason O’Regan in the semi-finals while Jason defeated Listowel’s Jake Shine in his semi-final. Up in Limerick meanwhile Killarney native Dermot Tuohy caused a stir in winning the Limerick Senior Mens event last Sunday also.
The Kerry Intermediate semi-finals saw Listowel’s Bobby McCarron defeat Tralee’s Danny O’Leary while Deerpark’s Adam Kelly got the better of Newmarket’s Willie John Buckley. In the final Bobby came from behind at the halfway stage to defeat Adam 3&2. The win ultimately prevented a clean sweep of the Mens titles for Deerpark as Daniel Kelly from the Killarney club won the Junior decider also by 3&2 against Newmarket’s Ben Murphy. Daniel had beaten Listowel’s John O’Connor in his semi-final while Ben was victorious over another Listowel player in Dylan Sweeney.
The Ladies event was an all Tralee affair as Rosemarie O’Sullivan won at the first playoff hole against club-mate Catriona O’Connor. Bernadette O’Regan and Majella Moynihan were the beaten semi-finalists as we would like to acknowledge the work of our Competition Secretary Christy O’Mahony not just last Sunday but all throughout the year. Last Sunday’s event was played in the shadow of the death of Deerpark players David, Mark and Robbie Harnett uncle Padraig’s death as we would like to offer our sincerest condolences to the Harnett family on his sad death.
