It was a week to remember for Listowel Pitch & Putt Club from Tuesday July 26th to the August Bank Holiday Monday just gone by.
They were crowned winners of the first Kerry Inter-Club Matchplay since 2003 on the Tuesday in Castleisland before their Scratch Cup on Monday needed an extra three holes between three players to determine the event winner.
In the Inter-Club Matchplay final under the Tim Scannell Memorial banner for the first time since the Tralee Club Chairman’s sad passing back in January they defeated Tralee in a cracking final by 5-4. Listowel had defeated Tralee in the final round of matches the previous Tuesday (19th) in Newmarket to secure their place in the decider ahead of Deerpark as a sizeable crowd was in attendance in Castleisland to see the two clubs face off again.
Listowel took a 2-1 lead after the Scotch Foursomes with their pairings of Killian O’Gorman & Ger Guerin (2&1) and Chris Gibney & Chris Curran (2up) victorious over Tralee’s pairings of Jason Cregan & Jamie Blake and Mark O’Regan & Sean O’Leary respectively. Tralee’s Ollie Lynch & Danny O’Leary put them on the board with a 2&1 win over Graham Tarrant & Tom Kelly as the Singles was a very tight affair.
David Hobbert got an opening win for Tralee over Bobby McCarron by 2&1 before Tom O’Connor responded for Listowel with a 1up win over Michael Creagh. Both clubs shared further wins when Chris Gibney (Listowel) beat Eamon Sheehy (Tralee) 1up while Keith O’Brien (Tralee) defeated Chris Curran (Listowel) 3&2. It was then 4-3 to Listowel as the final two matches both went to the third tie hole. Paul O’Shea levelled the overall score for Tralee with a hole-in-one to get the better of Ger Guerin as it came down to a match between Kerry’s last two winners of the National Intermediate Mens Strokeplay, Listowel’s Killian O’Gorman the current holder and Michael Conway from Tralee the 2020 winner.
Killian holed a putt from off the green to decide the match and tournament as the County Board was delighted to have Tim’s mother Maureen, his sister Lorraine and Tim nephews present to make the presentation afterwards. (Picture is the victorious Listowel team who won the Tim Scannell Memorial Inter-Club Matchplay Final, with Tim's mother Maureen, sister Lorraine and nephews Oisin and Bradan Byrne as follows- Kneeling L to R: Bobby McCarron, Tom Kelly, Jake Shine and Ger Guerin. Standing L to R: Christy O'Mahony (Kerry County Board Competition Secretary), Tom O'Connor, Chris Gibney, Killian O'Gorman and Chris Gibney)
Monday in Listowel meanwhile saw their Scratch Cup require a three-hole playoff after Tralee’s Jamie Blake, Cork’s John Walsh and Killarney native Dermot Tuohy of the Cill Na Mona club in Clare all finished level on 17 under par. Walsh had taken a bogey on the last that would have given him the title outright before Jamie Blake birdied two of the extra three holes to claim a long overdue Scratch Cup success. Tuohy would finish second overall on Back 18 from Walsh as Damien Fleming of Deerpark won the Last 18 prize with a score of seven under par.
The Intermediate event was won by Tom O’Connor from the host club with a score of nine under as his club-mate Monty Galvin was second on countback with seven under. Michael Creagh from the Tralee club won the Junior event with three under par as last year’s winner of this section, John Noel O’Connor was runner-up on one over par. The Ladies prizes saw Castleisland’s Julianne Broderick win the Ladies 0-9 on 119 with Lisa O’Connor from Tralee winning the 10-21 section on 124.
This weekend sees the Munster Inter-County Championships take place at the Cunnigar club in Dungarvan, Co Waterford as for the first time in three years Pitch & Putt Ireland are running inter-county competitions. Friday sees the U16’s in action as Kerry have two teams in this section namely the ‘Gold’ team of Deerpark’s Brian McCarthy, Noah Sexton and Nathan Cronin long with Listowel’s Ajay Barrett. The ‘Green’ then will consist of Deerpark’s Ben Kelliher along with Listowel trio Jayden Chute, Daniel Leahy and Dylan Sweeney. The U16’s are also play for the Munster Singles Strokeplay on Friday as part of the event.
Saturday sees the Kerry Junior Mens team of Listowel’s Graham Tarrant, Castleisland’s Jerry Lee, Deerpark’s Hugh O’Sullivan and Tralee trio Michael Creagh, Pa Byrne and Mark O’Regan represent the county with Christy O’Mahony as manager. Sunday sees the Intermediate and Senior Mens teams in action. The Intermediate team consists of Listowel duo Tom O’Connor and Bobby McCarron, Derrpark’s James Fleming along with Tralee trio Keith O’Brien, Paul O’Shea and Danny O’Leary in a team managed by Tralee’s John Fitzgerald.
Kerry’s Senior Mens team is managed by Deerpark duo Sean Kelly and Ger O’Connor with Deerpark duo Damien Fleming and John McGrath, Listowel’s Chris Gibney along with Tralee trio, Jason O’Regan, Michael Conway and Eamon Sheehy make up the team.
