The staging of a National Mens Strokeplay in St Annes in Cork proved to be another special day for Kerry Pitch & Putt last weekend.
Back in 2021 the delayed staging of the 2020 events saw a Kerry 1-2-3 in the Junior event at the Cork course followed by an Intermediate success at another Cork course in St Stephens the same day. This year, Kerry players returned with gold, silver and bronze medals again from two different events. Pride of place went to Deerpark’s Damien Fleming as he claimed the National Senior Mens title for the second time in his career.
Played over 72 holes this year for all three grades it was an eventful Sunday for the Senior grade as they had to play 54 holes due to a medical emergency on the course on Saturday reducing the grade to just 18 holes. Tralee’s Darren Goodall actually led after the first 18 with 10 under par but come Sunday morning it would be Damien and Tralee’s Jason Cregan who took up the baton for the county. Jason put in a third round of 12 under par to move into the lead on 24 under before Damien put a combined total of 20 under together for his initial 36 holes on Sunday to move into the lead ahead of the final 18 holes on 27 under.
With six holes to play Damien had moved to 32 under and was six ahead of Jason and able to coast home picking up a birdie on his very last hole to finishing with a winning score of 33 under. Jason would finish the tournament on 29 under but had to contend himself with third on countback as Cork’s John Walsh claimed second by virtue of a better final 18 holes. Damien’s win follows his 2018 victory in Glenville, Dublin as he now has a fifth National Senior Singles title to go with his three Matchplay wins.
The win was also his fourth time winning a two-day event in Ireland as his three Irish Open wins were also over two days. Elsewhere in the senior grade Darren Goodall finished 14th overall on 21 under par with last year’s runner-up Jason O’Regan finishing 20th on 15 under. The Intermediate grade saw Kerry’s other medal from the weekend as Deerpark’s Cillian Courtney replicated his brother Creagh’s achievement from 2014 in finishing second in the event. It could have been so much more though given he held the 36-hole lead in the competition on Saturday.
At 10 under par he held a two shot lead but unfortunately dropped two shots after his third round to find himself two behind. Cillian rallied in the final round however with seven under par to finish the tournament on 15 under par but could not stop Cian Mulcahy of Cork coming from behind to win by two shots on -17. It was still an immense performance after only returning to the game at the start of the summer as Tralee’s Tony Blake finished sixth in the grade with his club-mate Michael Creagh also getting a Top 10 finish in eighth as a third Tralee player in Reece Sugrue finished 12th.
The Junior grade meanwhile saw only one Kerry player make it to Sunday as Deerpark’s Robbie Harnett would finish in 12th overall. The County Board congratulates Damien, Jason Cillian and all the other Kerry players who made the playoffs on their performances in Cork last weekend.
This weekend it’s the turn of the women for their National Strokeplay events which take place in McDonagh in Kildare. The County Board wishes those travelling from the county to take part the very best of luck.
This Saturday also sees the re-arranged Castleisland Scratch Cups take place with cards at €10 per player available from 8am-2pm on the day. We encourage all players in the county to support this event.
