As the U16 season is about to come to a close this weekend with the scheduled County U16 Matchplay Championships, Deerpark’s Fionn McMonagle fought his way to the last four of the national version in Fermoy last weekend.
McMonagle had finished as runner-up in the Munster Matchplay back in June as he ensured that he would be in the 32-player Cup event following the 18 holes of Strokeplay to decide which players went into both Championship and Plate events. He defeated Louis Millar from the host club in the Last 32 by 4&3 before booking a quarter-final spot by defeating Tipperary’s Cillian O’Reilly 2&1 in the Last 16 before a 2up win over another Fermoy player in Leon Hogan ensured he would be returning on Sunday morning for the longer matches over 36 holes.
He faced Harry Concannon from the Gowran club in Kilkenny in the semi-finals as although Fionn went 1up after the first three holes, Concannon went on a birdie blitz that Fionn found hard to match but he was only trailing by two at the halfway stage. Another birdie run from the Kilkenny player put him 5up with 12 to play as Fionn still battled gamely in losing out by 4&3 in the finish. In an otherwise disappointing year for Kerry at U16 level itself compared to recent years, Fionn’s Matchplay performances have been one of the few bright lights as the Plate section saw both Fionn’s Deerpark club-mate Thomas O’Sullivan and Listowel’s Sean Stack reach the quarter-final stages.
We finish off the U16 season at county level on Saturday with the staging of the County Matchplays in Listowel as full details will be released closer to the weekend itself. Elsewhere last weekend there was an unofficial Kerry 1-2-3 at the Cill Na Mona Scratch Cup in Clare on Saturday as Listowel’s Declan McCarron won the 36-hole event with 10 under par and Castleisland’s Aidan O’Connor and Killarney native Dermot Tuohy were first and second in the Senior Mens section with the two next two best scores on the day. Meanwhile at the Bishopstown Scratch Cup, Castleisland member Erin Moloney finished third in the Cork club’s Intermediate Mens event.
This weekend sees the National Adult Inter-County Championships take place in Lakeside, Templemore, Co Tipperary as the Kerry Mens side seek to go one better than last year in Bagenalstown and claim only their second title overall in the event going back to 1986. We wish Damien Fleming, Jason Cregan, Jason O’Regan, John McGrath, Darren Goodall, Michael Conway, Jamie Blake and team manager James Fleming all the best over the scheduled 72 holes this weekend.
The Ladies team also compete in their event again this year as we also wish Charlotte Blake, Eileen McCarthy, Lisa and Catriona O’Connor along with team manager Tony Blake the best this weekend.
Photo is Deerpark Pitch & Putt Club's Fionn McMonagle receiving his prize for reaching the semi-finals of last weekend's National U16 Boys Matchplay Championships in Fermoy Co Cork from Pitch & Putt Ireland President Davy Reddin and Youth Officer Liam Leahy.
