Jason O'Connor reports
Last Sunday morning in Castleisland saw the National Matchplay Qualifiers for Kerry decided in this the second year of the expanded Intermediate and Junior Mens events by Pitch & Putt Ireland alongside the existing Senior Mens and dual Ladies events. In the Senior Mens event, Tralee’s Jason Cregan, Darren Goodall, Tony Blake, Gavin Carroll and Keith O’Brien along with Deerpark duo Damien Fleming and John McGrath will be the seven Kerry players entering Thursday May 22nd’s draw for all Finals.
Tony had a great battle with Listowel’s Chris Gibney for his qualifying spot with the pair going to the first playoff hole, the 37th of play before Tony went through. In the Intermediate Mens grade meanwhile Deerpark dominate the six players who will be in that draw from the county. Gearoid Cronin, Ger O’Connor, James Fleming and Connie O’Sullivan Jnr from the Killarney club all made it through this morning with Tralee’s Roger Guthrie and Listowel’s Ger Guerin taking the other two final spots.
The three Junior Mens representatives from Kerry meanwhile will be all from Tralee as Gerry Lee, Alan O’Connor and Reece Sugrue all managed to make it through. In Gerry’s case he had a battle with his brother Noel for the spot which Gerry won in another match to go a distance of 37 holes. Congratulations to all 16 players as they will go into the hat on for the various draws with the Finals on in Offaly courses Erry (Clara) and Tullamore on the June Bank Holiday Weekend.
This Friday meanwhile sees the National Secondary Schools Finals take place in St Bridgets, Kilcullen, Kildare. We wish the three St Brendans College Killarney and two St Michaels College Listowel teams that qualified from the recent Munsters the very best of luck as the Sem are bidding for four-in-a-row at National level in the event.
Elsewhere Deerpark have announced that due to the effect of the recent dry and warm weather on their course that their Scratch Cup events due for Sunday June 22nd have been postponed until a later date in the autumn at the earliest.
Finally, the Kerry County Board would like to express our sympathies to Theresa Broderick of Tralee and her family on the death of her husband Michael in the past week. May he Rest in Peace.
