Pitch & Putt IrelandPreview - National Gents Strokeplay - Senior
National Gents Strokeplay – Senior Preview by John Manning
Twelve current or former champions will take their place in the 2025 National Gents Strokeplay championship at St. Anne’s.
Kieran Earls (Bruff) will defend the title he collected at Glenville last year against a field that also includes 1992 and 1998 victor Frank O’Donoghue (Raffeen Creek), host club captain Ray Murphy (who lifted the first of his four trophies in 2000) and John Walsh (Collins), crowned champion in 1999 and in 2015.
Fermoy’s John Cahill won in 2001. Bryan Delaney (E.S.B.) triumphed in 2009 while Mark Millar (Killineer), Damien Fleming (Deerpark) and John Ross Crangle (Loughlinstown) claimed the Donnelly Cup in the successive years of 2017, 2018 and 2019 respectively.
Sean Goggin (MacBride) will hope to recapture the mood that saw the Drogheda man ascend the summit at Ringcommons three years ago. Goggin partners World Cup winner Ian Dillon (St. Bridget’s) and Meath Inter-County left-hander Paul O’Rourke (Dunshaughlin)
Chris Scannell (Collins) can boast a National Strokeplay win at St. Anne’s. That was in the 1984 Intermediate championship before Scannell went on to collect the 1995 senior crown at Collins. With the recent boost of a National Over-55 Senior grade Strokeplay win, Scannell must be fancied to do well here.
2008 champion Frank Dineen (St. Anne’s) is also a three-time runner-up in the championship, the last instance of which was at St. Anne’s in 2020, the only time in history that first place (after a tie) was decided on the second eighteen countback rule.
Earls, Millar, Scannell, Crangle, Delaney, Murphy, Walsh and Fleming are also current or former National Matchplay champions.
Other National Matchplay champions in the St. Anne’s field of sixty are Sean Harkins (Ryston), Stephen O’Reilly (Hillview) and Darren O’Reilly (Lucan). Harkins is drawn with 2011 European Strokeplay champion Ian Farrelly (Laytown). The two O’Reillys are paired together alongside Bryan Delaney.
Ger Kehoe (E.S.B.) was the 1990 intermediate champion. That title has also been held by Larkspur Park’s Michael Kirby (in 2018), Tralee’s Michael Conway (2020) and Prosperous man Justin McKeon (2021). Conway and McKeon are drawn in the same group and will play with 2012 All-Ireland Matchplay runner-up Eoin Walsh (Collins).
Martin Keohane (Bruff) took Best Nett laurels in the 2020 championship (held in 2021 due to Covid) at St. Anne’s. That’s a prize that Michael Conway also captured – in 2022.
Darren O’Connell (Tullamore) was runner-up in 2016 while Gary Healy (Loughlinstown) claimed second spot in 2022.
Daithi Sexton (Fermoy), Declan Freeman (Majestic) and Richard Jordan (Raffeen Creek) have all tasted success at Munster Strokeplay, Munster Matchplay and All-Ireland Over-55s level respectively.
Sexton finished third at Riverdale two years back while Jordan was Junior champion in 1986. Freeman lost to Jordan in a play-off for last year’s national Over-55 Strokeplay senior grade championship at St. Stephen’s, having picked-up bronze the previous year.
Other provincial champions on view include Tommy Hanley (Bruff) and Stephen Murray (Old County) who play together in the company of Tralee’s Jamie Blake (himself a Munster Inter-County victor, both juvenile and adult). George McGreal (Old County) was 2010 Leinster Strokeplay champion while Tralee’s Jason Cregan is a two-time Munster Matchplay champ.
2024 Leinster Matchplay champion Eamon Gibney (Castletown) will carry the glow of European Team championship glory into his threeball with Tralee’s Jason O’Regan (the 2024 runner-up and 2000 Munster Strokeplay champion) along with Darren O’Connell.
Gibney’s clubmate and the sport’s most decorated Juvenile in history, Evan Carry tees-off beside John Walsh and 2011 Dublin Intermediate Strokeplay champion Gary Ryan (Lucan).
Another promising ex-juvenile and 2022 National Under-20 Strokeplay champion, Jack Buckley (Collinstown) is in the final group of the day, partnered by John Ross Crangle and Tramore’s Edward Hennessy, who lifted bronze at Glenville twelve months ago.
James Cleary (Larkspur Park) was mega-impressive in qualifying. Cleary was runner-up in 2006 and third three years ago. Could 2025 finally be the year, that Cleary clinches the ultimate prize?
Each of the previous stagings of the National Strokeplay championship at St. Anne’s have been conducted over 36 holes. The winning aggregates have been 91 (in 1976), 90 (1984), 91 (1988) and 93 five years ago. That’s an average of just over 91, which gives a good indication of a player’s target for Saturday’s play, which will reduce the field to the top 20 to contest the title over a further 36 holes on Sunday.
It’s the first 72-hole test for the championship since 1961 when the event was decided over four rounds at Athgarvan in the first year of Pitch and Putt Union of Ireland’s existence. What is certain is that the 2025 72-hole winning aggregate will be lower than the 211 that triumphed 64 years back.
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