Last Saturday saw the first Scratch Cup of the year take place in Deerpark as Damien Fleming brought his total number of victories in the Gerald Horgan Memorial Senior event up to seven with a one shot victory over Cork’s Ray Murphy.
Damien finished with 19 under par for his 54 holes and was level with Murphy after 36 holes before going on to record his win. A fine closing round of 12 under par gave Tralee’s Jason Cregan the Last 18 prize in this section. At Intermediate level Gearoid Cronin from the host club won the event for a fourth time with 14 under par, two ahead of Listowel’s Jake Shine on -12 with James Fleming of Deerpark winning the Last 18 prize with three under.
Eoin O’Riordan Looney was the convincing winner of the Junior Mens event with 11 under par, five clear of Daniel Kelly in second on six under as Fintan Martin won the Last 18 with one under par. The Junior B Means prize meanwhile was won by another Deerpark player, Bobby Kelly, with 120 as Castleisland’s Julianne Broderick won the Ladies prize with 119.
Meanwhile at the Munster Scotch Foursomes in Bruff, Co Limerick last weekend’s Tralee’s Jason O’Regan and his wife Bernadette were denied victory in Saturday’s Mixed Event on countback after finishing tied with Tipperary pair John Fitzgerald and Lorraine Creed on 91 points. The latter were declared winners after a better Back 9 but it was still a very impressive performance by the Tralee pair. It was a family affair for Jason in general as both his son Mark and himself qualified for the National Matchplay finals on the June Bank Holiday weekend.
Last weekend’s Qualifiers in Listowel threw up some surprises not least in three-time winner Damien Fleming being denied a place in this year’s finals by Jason Cregan. Cregan would then be defeated by club-mate Gavin Carroll for a qualifying spot as the other five spots on offer went to Tralee trio Alan Hobbart, Michael Conway and Tony Blake as well as Deerpark’s John McGrath and Listowel’s Chris Gibney. All eight will find out their opponents next week as the draw for the event in St Bridgets Kildare takes place on Wednesday May 24th.
This weekend sees the Munster Matchplay Championships take place in the county. Listowel has now been added as a venue for the Intermediate Mens play on Saturday as all the grades will conclude in Tralee on Sunday. We wish all 21 players from Kerry taking part in both the Mens and Ladies events the very best of luck.
We also wish the three teams from St Brendans College and the team from St Michaels Listowel the very best of luck on Friday in the National Secondary Schools Finals in Athgarvan, Co Kildare.
