Deerpark’s Damien Fleming added another honour to his already glittering Pitch & Putt career last weekend as he was a member of the Irish Mens Pitch & Putt team that retained the European Team Championships in Lucan in Dublin in convincing fashion.
Ireland were the defending champions from the event last held in 2018 as home advantage was made more that count during the three days of play. The initial Strokeplay round to decide the order of the nine nationals involved saw Ireland finish 21 shots ahead of Great Britain in topping the standings as they ended up in an initial group with Switzerland and Galicia. They had 6-0 wins in both encounters as Damien defeated the Swiss’ Giovanni Volentik 3&2 and Galicia’s David Rodriguez 4&3 in his two matches.
Those wins meant Ireland went into a Championship Group with the other two group winners Catalonia and Great Britain as Damien partnered with Limerick’s Kieran Earls in the Doubles. They defeated Catalan pair Marc Lloret & Alex Albinana 4&3 with Damien subsequently beating Lloret 4&3 in the Singles match. Ireland had a 8-1 win overall against the Catalans as victory in Sunday morning’s game against Great Britain would assure them of the title. It was flawless in Ireland winning 9-0 as Fleming combined with Earls again for a 2&1 win over Liam Malone & Steve Deeble in the Doubles as Damien then had a 3&2 win over John Deeble in the Singles to complete his tournament.
The win follows on from Damien’s Irish World Cup win last autumn as the specific win itself last weekend was 20 years after Damien’s Deerpark club-mate Derry McCarthy captained Ireland to victory in this event in Holland. The County Board congratulates Damien and the Irish team on their victory along with the Irish Ladies side who also won their event. Elsewhere last Saturday at the Ardnacrusha Scratch Cup saw Deerpark’s Eileen McCarthy (Gross) and Tralee’s Charlotte Blake (Nett) win the two Ladies prizes in the competition.
Closer to home the County U16 Boys Strokeplay Championships took place on Tuesday July 15th last in Tralee with the overall title requiring a nine-hole playoff to decide the outcome after both Deerpark’s Fionn McMonagle and Tralee’s Tommy Murray tied on 116. Fionn was victorious by five shots in the extra holes in claiming the overall title from Tommy as the 13-15 section was dominated by Listowel with Ruairi Turbinski winning by four shots from his club-mate Mason Sheehy Elston on a score of 119.
The 8-12 section was won by Deerpark’s Aodhan O’Halloran meanwhile on 118 with Joey Blake from the host club second on 127. The County Strokeplay was also the event that saw confirmation of the three Kerry teams that will represent the county in the Munster U16 Singles & Inter-County Championships in Crosshaven in Cork this Saturday.
Gold Team
Aodhan O'Halloran (Deerpark)
Fionn McMonagle (Deerpark)
Mason Sheehy Elston (Listowel)
Thomas Keane (Listowel)
Green Team
Fionn O’Callaghan (Deerpark)
Tommy Daly (Listowel)
Thomas O'Sullivan (Deerpark)
Diarmuid Lyons (Listowel)
White Team
Daniel Quinlan (Deerpark)
Sean Stack (Listowel)
Ruairi Turbinski (Listowel)
Joey Blake (Tralee)
Well done to all those who qualified and best wishes to them and the other Kerry players taking part in Crosshaven this Saturday. Finally, this Friday sees the National Strokeplay Qualifiers take place in Tralee as they have been brought forward in order to avoid a clash with the All-Ireland Football Final on Sunday.
