A few shocks were expected as part of Pitch & Putt Ireland’s decision to reduce the opening rounds of their National Gents Matchplay Championships to 18 holes but few would have expected defending Mens champion Damien Fleming of Deerpark to be the first victim of the condensed early rounds at Larkspur Park in Cashel last Saturday.
Damien lost the very first match of the day to Anthony Culhane of the Tipperary Hills club 3&2 as he failed to go ahead of the Tipperary player once Culhane took an early lead. Only two of the five Kerry players made it to the second round as Alan Hobbart and Darren Goodall were the only players from the Kingdom to win their opening games.
Alan was defeated by eventual runner-up Ian Dillon from St Bridgets in Kildare at the last hole 1 down while Darren lost by the same margin over Pacelli Darcy from Bruff. Jason O’Regan lost to eventual quarter-finalist Sean Goggin of MacBride 2&1 while Michael Conway lost by the same margin to Eoin Mithen from Loughlinstown in Dublin.
Over in Hillview in Clonmel Tralee’s Lisa O’Connor received a walkover from Oldcastle’s Suzanne O’Reilly in the first round of the Ladies Nett event but was unfortunately well beaten by Veronica Anglim from the host club in the quarter-finals 10&9.
This weekend sees the U16’s in the county travel to Athgarvan in Kildare for the delayed National U16 Strokeplay Championships because of the public health restrictions for the Lilywhite County over the last month.
We wish those travelling a safe journey to the Curragh for the event.
