Saturday will see Pitch & Putt Ireland visit RGSC for the first time in a number of years. It is a different course from what it was back in 2016 when the National Inter-County Championships were held there. The Junior A and Junior B Championships will take place there on Saturday as Jason O’Connor looks ahead to Saturday in Kingswood.

One of the standout features of the field for Saturday is that there is no home advantage for anyone in heading to RGSC. The Junior B event sees all three prize-winners from the Leinster event amongst the field as Ashgrove’s Stuart Poole, Bagenalstown’s Patrick O’Neill and Loughlinstown’s Ciaran McCormack will be in action on Saturday. William Condon of Crosshaven (third) is the only Munster prizewinner from that event amongst the field as they will be the last competition to tee off on Saturday at 1pm.

Loughlinstown’s Colin Kelly is the other Dublin registered player amongst the field as Crosshaven in Cork is the club with the biggest degree of interest in this section having another four players alongside William Condon in Pat Harris, Sean Burns, Thomas Aherne and Martin Condon. Some players to keep an eye out for in the field include Ardnacrusha’s Brian Andrews, Tralee’s Gerry Lee as well as Lough Owel’s Alan Devaney. Bar the need of a playoff to decide the outcome it will be the first result declare on the day between both courses.

Turning to the Junior A event, Shane Griffin of ESB, Ronnie Guinan of Lucan and Bagenalstown’s Martin Whelan get the day underway itself in RGSC on Saturday. There are no prize-winners from either of the two recent provincial events amongst the field making it somewhat interesting. There are six Dublin registered players in the field including Ronan’s Lucan club-mates Jack King and Simon Heffernan, Portmarnocks Ciaran Brady, along with Loughlinstown duo Paul Donohoe and Aaron Handyside.

All the Dublin players will be out early on Saturday as ESB from Cork have five finalists this year in Shane Griffin, Jamie Nagle, Ger Dinan, Niall Dwane and Benny McCarthy. The Munster Junior B First and Second place finishers are in the field with Tralee’s Reece Sugrue and Cunnigar’s Patrick Walsh amongst Saturday’s competitors in the Junior A event. Sugrue tees off in the final group in the first session along with Paul Walsh of Collins and PJ Ryan of Bruff as the second session at 12.30pm on the day starts with Bandon’s Shane O’Mahony, Lough Owel’s John Sweeney and Listowel’s Paul Hayes.

The session also includes Seapointss Joe Downes as he plays with Mellows’ Ollie Keogh and Tipp Hills’ Nicholas Cummins on Saturday. Gowran have three representatives in the field on Saturday namely Robert Middelton, John McDonald and Michael Holland. Poulaphouca are another club to have three finalists meanwhile as Steve Clifford, PJ Harte and John Carroll are taking part on Saturday with Collins duo Callum O’Donovan and Nicky Byrne joining the aforementioned Paul Walsh in representing the Cork club.

Without any star name at the outset it feels like a wide open field in advance as it will be interesting to see who makes the Final 18 playoff and how the players will cope with having a lot more eyes on them for the conclusion of it all off the M7 Motorway.

 

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