The Kerry 'Gold' team that won the Munster U16 Inter-County competition in Larkspur Park, Cashel on Friday last pictured with Pitch & Putt Ireland Youth Officer Liam Leahy (centre). Pictured L to R: Nathan Cronin, Brian McCarthy (Capt), Ronan Bennett and A Jay Barrett. Brian and Nathan also finished first and second respectively in the Boys 14-15 Singles event the same day.
The Kerry 'Green' team that finished third at the Munster U16 Inter-County competition in Larkspur Park, Cashel on Friday last pictured with Pitch & Putt Ireland Youth Officer Liam Leahy (centre). Pictured L to R: Daniel Leahy, Mark Carroll, Kane Dillon and Bryan O'Leary.
The Tralee team and that won the Tim Scannell Memorial Inter-Club Matchplay Final against Deerpark on Tuesday August 8th last receiving the Memorial Shield for Tim's mother Maureen and nephews Oisin and Brendáin.
A busy week last week saw action at national, provincial and county level with a national silver medal, two provincial golds, a provincial silver and a provincial bronze coming Kerry’s way by the end of the weekend.
At the National Mens Strokeplay Championships in Riverdale, Nenagh, Deerpark’s Damien Fleming came second in the competition for the third time as the 2018 winner was two strokes off the winning score at both the 36 hole stage as well as at the completion of the 54 holes. 11 under par for his first 18 holes was a great start as he finished the initial 36 holes on 18 under par, two shots off the score set by Stephen Shoer from the host club on 20 under.
Damien could never get ahead of Shoer at any stage in the final 18 holes as he finished the tournament on 26 under par with two late bogeys preventing Shoer finishing on 30 under with his eventual winning score of 28 under par. Damien was joined by club-mate John McGrath in the Top 18 playoff as John shot 17 under par for his 36 holes before finishing the tournament on 21 under par and in ninth place overall. Jason Cregan of Tralee and Killian O’Gorman of Listowel missed on taking part in the playoff on countback with their scores of 11 under par meanwhile.
The Intermediate Mens event on Saturday meanwhile saw two Kerry players make that playoff as well with Tralee’s Keith O’Brien and Erin Moloney making the cut. Keith had a five under par round for his last 18 holes to get into a tie for the third place score of 11 under par but he was beaten on countback for the prize officially meaning he finished fourth overall. Erin Moloney finished on six under par meanwhile. On Friday meanwhile at the Munster U16 Strokeplay and Inter-County Kerry continued their present domination of the underage section.
There was a Deerpark 1-2 in the Boys 14-15 section as Brian McCarthy and Nathan Cronin continued their strong form from the Matchplay events the previous month. Brian won with a score of eight under par but not before Nathan made a storming charge in the second 18 with a nine under par round brining him to seven under for the tournament. Indeed he left a potential playoff forcing putt on the 18th green on the lip of the cup. Both Brian and Nathan were part of the Kerry ‘Gold’ team that won the inter-county event for the fifth consecutive staging for the Kingdom.
Listowel’s A Jay Barrett and another Deerpark player Ronan Bennett were the other members of the winning Kerry side who had a 22 under par winning score of 302 which gave them a 14 shot winning margin from hosts Tipperary. The Kerry ‘Green’ team meanwhile of Mark Carroll, Bryan O’Leary, Daniel Leahy and Kane Dillon finished third on 333. Kerry were also represented by a third team in this event for the first time ever and that ‘White Team’ consisted of Sean O’Mahony, Luke Doolan, Dara Wickham and Mason Sheehy Elston.
Closer to home the Tim Scannell Memorial Inter-Club Matchplay final was played between Tralee and Deerpark in Tralee last Tuesday August 8th with Tralee getting home advantage after a toss of a coin for venue. Deerpark led by 2-1 after the doubles with James Fleming & Hugh O’Sullivan (4&3) along with John McGrath & Bobby Kelly (2up) getting their points with Alan Hobbart & Mark O’Regan (2&1) putting Tralee on the board. Tralee turned the tide in the Singles though with Michael Creagh (20th Hole), Gavin Carroll (6&4), Mark O’Regan (2&1) and Alan Hobbart (3&2) bringing them to the five points needed for victory as Erin Moloney (3&2) and Mark O’Shea (2&1) claimed Deerpark’s two Singles wins in the final 5-4 scoreline.
We were happy to have Tim’s mother Maureen and nephews Brendáin and Oisín there to do the presentation on the night as we congratulate Tralee on their Inter-Club Strokeplay (Bob Casey) and Matchplay double this year. This weekend meanwhile it is the turn of the county’s male players to put on the Kerry colours as the Munster Inter-County Championships take place in Raffeen Creek, Co Cork. The Junior team play on Saturday as we wish manager Christy O’Mahony and panel Daniel Broderick Jnr, Michael Creagh, Mark Lucey, Fintan Martin, Brian Moloney, John O’Regan and Mark O’Regan the very best of luck.
On Sunday then it is the Senior and Intermediate teams that are both in action. The Kerry Intermediate team is managed by John Fitzgerald (Tralee) and the panel consists of Jake Shine, Ger Guerin, Monty Galvin, Gavin Carroll, Gearoid Cronin, James Fleming and Keith O’Brien. The Senior panel meanwhile is managed by James Fleming and the players consist of Damien Fleming, John McGrath, Jason O’Regan, Jason Cregan, Michael Conway, Alan Hobbart and Chris Gibney.
We wish both teams the very best of luck in their events also.
