Pitch & Putt IrelandLooking Forward to the Leinster and Munster Scotch Foursomes
In advance of this weekends Scotch Foursomes John Manning has provided us with some great insights below.
Please enjoy his excellant reports on both Leinster and Munster and best of luck to all those competing this weekend.
Leinster
Poulaphouca is the name of a waterfall and bridge on the River Liffey between County Wicklow and County Kildare. It is primarily known for its hydroelectric generating station and the associated artificial lake, known as Poulaphouca Reservoir.
Just 45 minutes from downtown Dublin along the N81, lies the idyllic, rural setting of Poulaphouca Pitch and Putt club.
The Leinster Scotch Foursomes finals will be contested at Poulaphouca on Saturday and Sunday.
Holders Sharon Haines and Lee Haines (Royal Meath) will defend their provincial Mixed title on Saturday. Sharon and Lee (who tallied 96 stableford points on their way to victory at Trim last year) will partner Thomas and Deirdre Egan (Glenville).
The 2024 runners-up Nuala Stafford and John Troy (Stackallen) will be back for another tilt at the title. The Stackallen pair will enjoy the company of Seapoint husband and wife partnership Noelene and Michael Bedford.
Keith Redmond and Tracey Redmond (Lucan) were the Best Gross winners at Trim and will be expected to contend for that award again along with Noelene and Michael Bedford, another Seapoint pair Suzanne Jordan and Philip Reynolds, Darren Keogh and Chrissie Sheedy (Ryston) and Kathleen Geraghty (Skryne) and Ian Farrelly (Laytown). Tracey has won four times overall with her brother Joe.
Other Gross contenders are likely 2023 National Mixed Foursomes Gross winners Brenda Purcell and Gareth Walsh (Lucan).
The country’s no. 1 ranked player, Ian Dillon (St. Bridget’s), has been a Leinster Mixed Foursomes champion on no fewer than four occasions. Two of those wins have been with his wife Catherine and Catherine tees up alongside Ian again as the Kilcullen couple bid to add to their 2017 and 2018 victories.
World Cup winner Padraic Sarsfield and his partner Audrey Donnelly (MacBride) claimed the National Mixed Foursomes in 2023.
The host club will be strongly represented with six all-Poulaphouca pairings while Poulaphouca’s Bernie Dunne links with McDonagh’s Frank Connolly.
Poulaphouca previously hosted the Leinster Mixed Foursomes in 1992 when Tullamore’s Joe Hoctor and Denis Pyke triumphed on +11 (when the event was contested in the versus par format).
The Mixed event will feature 78 pairs while Sunday’s Non-Mixed event will be contested by 86 teams.
Holders Alan Kierans and Derek Reynolds (Killineer) have been drawn in the afternoon session, which tees-off at 2.30pm. The Drogheda mens’ fellow competitors for the day will be John Troy Junior and Eoghan Stanley (Stackallen).
2023 kingpins James Kirwan and Mark Kirwan (St. Patrick's) play in the 11.30 session on Sunday alongside Kilbeggan duo Val Darcy and David Donoghue.
Jonathan McCabe was victorious in 2019 with Jimmy Burke (Navan). Now he teams up with Rathfeigh clubmate Richie Walsh.
Lough Owel’s Sean Dinnegan and Dean Dinnegan finished as runners-up at Kilbeggan two years ago and will fancy their chances again as will father and son Gel Martin and Glen Martin (Killineer).
Ian Dillon and Frank Ryan (St. Bridget’s) have campaigned effectively in the Inter-County arena for Kildare and will be short odds to claim Best Gross honours here as will the two Marks from Rochfortbridge, Kelly and Newman.
Other interesting low handicap combinations include Wexford Inter-County players Paul Gorby and Wayne Allen (St. Patrick’s), Tadgh Harrington (Rathfeigh) with Evan Carry (Castletown) along with Tullamore twosome Denis Hill and Michael Connolly.
An all-ladies grouping took second place at Trim in 2024. Ashlene McKevitt and Anne Jackson are not in the field this time but Maria Cranney and Marie Campbell (Cloghogue), Catherine Dillon and Mairead O’Toole (St. Bridget’s) or Marion Gannon Kelly and Catherine Smith (McDonagh) could get into this year’s shake-up.
Home hopes will be carried by five Poulaphouca partnerships and by local player John Carroll, who lines up with McDonagh’s Derek O’Driscoll.
Poulaphouca hosted the Leinster Inter-County championships very capably in 2023 and will no doubt be an excellent venue for the Leinster Scotch Foursomes.
Munster
Dungarvan is a seaside resort town and harbour on the south coast of Ireland in the province of Munster. Dungarvan is the county town and administrative centre of County Waterford. The town lies on the N25 road (European route E30), which connects Cork, Waterford and Rosslare Europort.
Dungarvan has a magnificent 18 hole Championship Pitch and Putt course set in the picturesque surrounds of Dungarvan Bay - Cunnigar. Cunnigar will welcome 38 Mixed pairs and 70 Non-Mixed teams in the 2025 Munster Scotch Foursome finals this weekend.
Bishopstown’s Linda Griffin and Sean Looney won the Mixed Scotch Foursomes impressively over their home course in 2024 and will defend the title on Saturday in the company of local pairing Aidan O’Rourke and Bridget Broderick.
Lesley Gilmore and Ian McCarthy (Bishopstown) chased their clubmates home last year and their 2025 title push will be conducted alongside another Cunnigar couple, Anne O’Connor and Paddy Noonan.
Breda White teamed-up with Tipperary Hills teammate Michael Brennan to Best Gross laurels in 2023 and 2024. The Premier County couple will play with Bernadette and Jason O’Regan (Tralee) who finished second overall at Tralee in 2022.
Hillview’s Lorraine Creed and John Fitzgerald triumphed at Bruff in 2023 and they are joined in this year’s field by the 2022 champions Mary Murray and John Treacy (Rocklodge) plus 2019 victors Nicola and Morty Ahern (Collins).
Lisa O’Connor and Tony Blake (Tralee) were 2014 winners at Fermoy and Fermoy husband and wife pairing Ailish and David Sexton won nationally in 2011.
Cunnigar was last host course to the Munster Mixed Foursomes in 2009 when local pair Cait Mulcahy and Thomas Maher emerged victorious with a superb +19 (in the versus par era). In all, Cunnigar will have nine pairs on view on Saturday.
Tony Blake (Tralee) was Non-Mixed winner in 2024 alongside his son Jamie but plays this year with fellow Kerry Inter-County player Michael Conway.
The man pipped on a countback in 2021 for the National Intermediate Strokeplay championship, by Michael Conway, Michael Herlihy (ESB), plays with his clubmate Martin Dawe.
Stephen Conlon and Ian McCarthy (Bishopstown) will be bidding to go one better than their 2024 runners-up performance.
Joe Hickey and Adrian Anglim (Hillview) have featured on the podium in the National Non-Mixed Foursomes (2nd session winners in 2019). Ian Leech was a session winner with Michael Long at St. Stephen’s in 2019. Now Ian partners St. Anne’s colleague Charlie O’Sullivan.
Frank Dineen (St. Anne’s) and John Walsh (Collins) will seek to replicate their irresistible Best Gross performance at Bishopstown in 2024 when Collins brothers Morty and Trevor Ahern combined for 1st session honours.
There are a host of pretenders to the Dineen and Walsh Best Gross crown. Look out for Fermoy’s John Cahill and David Sexton, 2023 winners Thomas Hanley and Kieran Earls (Bruff), Bryan Delaney and John Morrissey (ESB), Hillview’s Paul Sweeney and Stephen O’Reilly along with Jimmy O’Neill and Brian Webster (Larkspur Park).
Others that fit that particular bill are Kerry Inter-County stars Jason Cregan (Tralee) and Damien Fleming (Deerpark), Raffeen Creek team Frank O’Donoghue and Richard O’Flaherty, St. Anne’s father and son combo Ray Murphy and Cian Murphy along with Riverdale’s Stephen Shoer and Joseph Danagher.
In contrast to Leinster, an all-ladies pairing has not made the podium in the relatively short history of the Munster Non-Mixed Scotch Foursomes tournament but thirteen all-ladies teams compete on Sunday, including All Ireland Strokeplay champions Ailish Sexton (Fermoy) and Sarah O’Neill (Collins), former Munster Mixed Foursomes champ Nicola Ahern (Collins) with her daughter Megan, and another past winner Lorraine Creed partnering her Hillview club colleague Ann Marie Quigley.
The 2024 National Non-Mixed Scotch Foursomes winners Brian Cahill and Mark Cahill (Riverdale) will be quietly confident of a double.
In all, Cunnigar will have eleven pairs in action on Sunday.
Both reports courtesy of John Manning.
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