This Friday, October 20th will be a momentous day not only for Kerry Pitch & Putt as well as the clubs of Deerpark and Listowel as three members of the Irish U16 team that will face Catalonia at the Montseny course near Barcelona will be from Kerry as well as both clubs. Deerpark members Brian McCarthy and Nathan Cronin along with Listowel’s Ajay Barrett will be part of the six player U16 team that will represent Pitch & Putt Ireland alongside a Ladies side as well.
Brian will follow in the footsteps of his father Derry who represented Ireland on six occasions between 1995 and 2005 culminating in him captaining Ireland to a European Championship victory in Holland back in 2005. All three have had tremendous performances in the sport over the last two years leading to their selections for this side. They were on the Kerry team last year that won the National U16 Inter-County on home turf in Deerpark while they also were on the side that helped completed four-in-a-row for the county in the competition in Seapoint, Co Louth back in August.
Individually all three have had a strong year. Brian won the National Boys Matchplay Championship Final against Ajay in the first ever all Kerry National Matchplay final in Pitch & Putt. He also finished second in the National Boys Strokeplay in Seapoint as he won the Munster 13-16 aged Boys Strokeplay Championship in August holding off a late charge by Nathan in the process. Ajay of course was 2022 National Boys Strokeplay winner when the event was held in Deerpark. Nathan meanwhile won the Munster Boys Matchplay Championship in St Stephens, Cork back in July (beating Ajay in the final) as it came following a win in the National Boys Plate Matchplay in 2022.
As well as that second place finish in the Munster Boys Strokeplay, Nathan has also made his debut at adult level after turning 16 recently winning the Captain’s Prize in the club as he was also part of the Deerpark club’s first team that recently qualified first in their section of the qualifiers for the National Inter-Club competition. Following his return from Catalonia, Nathan will be heading with the club’s team to St Bridget’s in Kildare for the National Final on the October Bank Holiday Saturday.
In total the Deerpark duo and Listowel’s Barrett’s selections mean that half of the six player Irish U16 team is from Kerry as they will play 54 holes as part of the Challenge which will be an 18 hole Fourball, 18 holes of Scotch Foursomes and 18 holes of Singles Matchplay in all
formats as their match scores will be calculated with the Ladies matches to give the overall score in the end. The County Board wish all three players the very best of luck in the Catalan province this week.
Last weekend meanwhile saw both Deerpark’s Damien Fleming and Tralee’s Jason O’Regan finish in the Top 25 in the first event World Pitch & Putt Tour event held in Ireland at the Ringcommons course in Dublin. Both players finished on 12 and 11 under par respectively as we are entering the final weeks of the season beyond club level.
The Paul O’Sullivan Memorial Scratch Cup, postponed last month, will now take place in Castleisland on the October Bank Holiday Monday. It will be reduced to a 36-hole event for the time of year as tee-times are available from County Board Competition Secretary Christy O’Mahony
