Jason O’Connor reports
A busy seven days at the Tralee course ended last Sunday with the Munster Matchplay Qualifiers on top of the previous Sunday’s County Matchplay Championships and the staging of the Tim Scannell Memorial Inter-Club Matchplay Final on Tuesday April 21st last.
Starting with the Munster Matchplay Qualifiers 15 Kerry players earned their places for the finals in Cork courses Fermoy and St Stephens on the weekend of May 10th in the three Mens grades. The Senior Grade saw Damien Fleming and Tralee duo Jason Cregan and Darren Goodall share the top score on the day with 11 under par as Listowel Chris Gibney qualified with nine under par and Jason O’Regan got through on countback from Tralee club-mate Gavin Carroll on seven under par.
The Intermediate grade saw Tony Blake top score with eight under par as another Tralee player in Michael Creagh was next on six under. Completing a good week for himself personally where he won the Overall Nett at the Rocklodge Open in Cork, Deerpark’s Michael Cronin was next on five under par as his club-mate Nathan Cronin claimed the final spot here on two under on countback from Listowel’s Ger Guerin. The Junior grade saw Deerpark trio James Foley, David Harnett and Niall O’Loughlin all qualifying alongside Tralee’s Alan O’Connor and Castleisland’s Adam Ricken.
In the postponed Tim Scannell Memorial Inter-Club Matchplay Final on April 21st last, Tralee 1 were 5-1 winners on the night over Tralee 2. Danny O'Leary & Eddie Sheehy won their Scotch Foursomes match against John O'Regan & Noel Lee on the last hole while Gavin Dillane & Catriona O'Connor went 1up on 17 and won their match against John Lynch & Bernadette O'Regan. This made it 2-0 to Tralee 1 entering the Singles session.
Tralee 1 Captain Danny O'Leary beat Tralee 2's Bernadette O'Regan by a margin of 3&2 while Tralee 1's Gavin Dillane and Rodger Guthrie both secured points by 4&3 margins over Tralee 2's John O'Regan and Gerry Lee respectively. At 5-0 to Tralee 1, John Lynch's determination saw him snag a consolation point for Tralee 2 in near darkness over Eddie Sheehy from Tralee 1 in a match that saw the players with the two best records in the competition pitted against each other. Our thanks to our sponsors Spark Market St Listowel for their support of the event this year as we look forward to the start of the Bob Casey Memorial Inter-Club Strokeplay in the coming weeks.
Finally, this past weekend saw Castleisland’s Aidan O’Connor win the Gelders Open in Holland as all in Kerry Pitch & Putt congratulate him on this success.
