Christy O'Mahony reports
A busy Bank Holiday weekend of action in Pitch & Putt saw Kerry’s places in the National Mens Matchplay Championships on the next Bank Holiday Weekend in June decided in Tralee on Sunday last as the draw guaranteed that one big Kerry name would miss out initially in making it to Tipperary for the Senior finals next month.
Irish Mens No 1 Damien Fleming and Munster Senior Matchplay holder Jason Cregan were drawn to face each other in the first round of qualifying like last year in Listowel where Jason won. It went all the way between the pair against this year with Damien winning on the last and subsequently assuring himself of his place in the finals with a 7&6 win over Darren Goodall. As it stands the only way Jason Cregan can get to the National Matchplay now is retaining his Munster Senior Matchplay title in Cunnigar in Dungarvan, Co Waterford this weekend. The provincial winners this year are guaranteed National Final spots this year provided they entered the national event and have not already qualified from their own county.
Another spot to go to the very end was between Deerpark’s John McGrath and Tralee’s Tony Blake as John won a titanic battle on the last hole 1up to get his place in the finals. All bar three of the other qualifying spots in all three grades went to Tralee players as Gavin Carroll, Jamie Blake, Alan Hobbart and Thomas Roche made it through in the senior grade. The other senior mens spot will be occupied by Kerry’s only other National Senior Mens Matchplay winner besides Damien Fleming, the county’s first ever winner of the event in Derry McCarthy who won on his home course in Deerpark back in 2004.
The Intermediate Mens spots meanwhile went to Tralee trio Keith O’Brien, Michael Creagh and Danny O’Leary along with Deerpark’s Gearoid Cronin and Castleisland’s Dan Broderick. Both Junior spots went to Tralee’s Mark O’Regan and John Fitzgerald meanwhile. Elsewhere the Munster Secondary Schools event took place in Fermoy last Friday with St Brendans College Killarney and St Michaels Listowel well represented amongst the field. It was quite the performance by the Sem overall as five of their seven entered teams managed to qualify for the National Finals.
Two teams from the school finished first and second in winning the competition for the school for a fifth time as their B team got the better of their A team in the final standings as Irish U16 Internationals Brian McCarthy and Nathan Cronin combined with Ben Kelliher for their winning score of 326. That was 10 clear of former winners Fintan Martin, Robbie Harnett and Ronan Bennett in shooting their second place score of 336. High School Clonmel prevented a clean sweep of the podium for the Killarney school as they finished on 341
Despite a score of seven under par from Noah Sexton, he along with his team-mates Mark Carroll and Shay O’Meara on St Brendans D had to settle for fourth place on 346. The Killarney Schools E and F teams also managed to make it through to Hillview as the St Michaels Listowel A team featuring another Irish International Ajay Barrett, Jayden Chute and Dara Browne made it six Kerry teams for the field of 18 in the National Finals on Friday May 17th next.
This weekend meanwhile sees the Munster Matchplay Finals take place over two courses namely Cunnigar in Dungarvan and Claycastle in Youghal. As previously mentioned, Jason Cregan facing a big challenge in the defence of his title and it is not made any easier by the fact he must face Tralee club-mate Jamie Blake in the First Round this year.
There are Kerry players in five of the six grades of play across the Mens and Womens competitions this weekend as the County Board wishes all Kerry players taking part the very best of luck especially Tralee’s Lisa O’Connor and Catriona O’Connor in defending their Womens Intermediate and Junior titles respectively.
