Pitch & Putt IrelandProvincial Inter Counties Weekend
Jason O’Connor reminds us how it all panned out last weekend in the Munster Inter-Counties. After basking in the glow of his native county having a great showing in Tralee last weekend, he begins with the Senior Mens event where Singles scoring was to prove a big factor in deciding all three Mens competitions themselves.
Cork retained the Claret Jug in the Senior Mens event last Sunday as the gap between both Kerry and themselves to the rest of the field was quite significant in the end. A three shot lead after the Scotch Foursomes was a great platform for them to put double figures between themselves and the hosts at the end as there was all of 34 shots between third placed Limerick and themselves in the final standings.
John Cahill and Bryan Delaney starting with a 12 under par round in the Scotch Foursomes was the main reason they led at halfway as Frank Dineen and John Walsh brought in nine under with eight under coming in for both Eoin Walsh and Ray Murphy to bring them to 29 under. Kerry had one double figure round namely a 10 under from Jason O’Regan and Darren Goodall as there were two eight under par rounds from the combinations of Mike Conway & Jamie Blake along with Damien Fleming & Jason Cregan.
Tommy Hanley & Kieran Earls had a 10 under round for Limerick but they were 10 shots off the lead in third after the Scotch Foursomes. Cork’s Singles scoring was immense with two even five under par nines giving Eoin Walsh double figures at 10 under (the only player to do it in the Singles) with John Cahill, John Walsh and Frank Dineen all bringing in eight under par rounds. Ray Murphy had their final counting Singles score of seven under par to bring them to their total of 71 under.
Kerry could only reach 57 under meanwhile as there were eight under par totals for both Darren Goodall and Jason O’Regan with Jason Cregan and Damien Fleming shooting seven under each and Michael Conway their other counting score on four under. Limerick held off Tipperary by seven for third, that coming despite Paul Sweeney (nine) and Stephen Shoer (eight) shooting a combined 17 under in the Singles and bringing them to 30 under overall. Given the shorter turnaround to the Anchor Cup battle in Bagenalstown this year it will be interesting what effect last Sunday has on all sides.
Earlier in the day on Sunday the Kerry Intermediate team won the third of the county’s three titles over the weekend as the Scotch Foursomes proved to be kinder to the teams involved than the Singles did. Both Kerry and Cork were tied at 15 under par after the Scotch with Keith O’Brien & Eamon Sheehy scoring eight under par, Darragh Roche and Michael Creagh six under par and James Fleming & Bobby McCarron scrapping in one under par. Cork had seven under par for the duo of Adrian Forsythe & Alan Duggan, six under for John Looney & Colin Hennessy and two under for Michael Herlihy & Ian Leech.
Three players shooting under par in the Singles was the main reason Kerry won overall, Eamon Sheehy shooting two under, Keith O’Brien and James Fleming shooting one under par each as level for Bobby McCarron, one over for Darragh Roche and two over for Michael Creagh as their Singles scores in finishing the tournament on 16 under par. Cork had a brilliant five under par round from John Looney but struggled elsewhere as Michael Herlihy and Morty Ahern both had one over par, Adrian Forsythe two over, Alan Duggan +6 and Colin Hennessy +9 in falling back to one under overall for the tournament.
Tipp claimed third with a team total of four over par as one under par rounds from Darren McGrath and Mark Cummins along with a Scotch Foursomes Round of four under par from Aaron Hogan & Sean Minogue were crucial factors in them holding off Waterford for whom Owen Tubbritt had the second best individual score of the grade with four under par. The Junior event meanwhile saw Kerry, Cork and Tipp occupy the medal spots much like the other two Mens grades.
Cork were five shots ahead of Kerry after the Scotch Foursomes but the Singles was the major factor in reversing the positions in the end. Cork’s lead owed a lot to a five under par total from Dylan Ahern & Mark Gosling as Dan Ahern & Pa Harrington had two under and Stephen Conlon & Tim O’Connor two over. Kerry were level after their three Scotch Foursomes as Pa Byrne & Mark O’Shea combined for four under, Mark O’Regan and Noel Lee one under and David Hobbert & Robbie O’Connor four over par.
The Singles were Kerry’s strongpoint though as Mark O’Regan had one under par, Pa Byrne level, David Hobbert one over, Robbie O’Connor four over par and Noel Lee +7 for their eventual team total of +12. Cork struggled in the Singles, Dylan Ahern shooting level par their best total as they finished 17 shots behind the hosts in the end. Tipperary claimed another bronze medal a further seven shots back as Alan Sutcliffe had one over par for them in the Singles.
In the Stableford Ladies event Kerry would celebrate winning a Ladies Inter-County competition for the first time since 2001 when the Munsters were also in the county in Deerpark. Before we talk about that though, Cork 1 had an eight-point victory over Tipperary 1 in the Gross event to retain they won the previous year in Raffeen Creek. A 40-point total for Ailish Sexton and Mary Murray in the Scotch Foursomes was a big factor as Ailish also returned 34 points in the Singles to give the team consisting of Sarah O’Neill, Paula Nolan, Ailish and Mary a winning final total of 187 points.
The Tipperary 1 team of Breda White, Frances Ryan, Mary Quinn and Margaret Forde finished with a combined 179 points. In the Nett event, Kerry returned to the Inter-County Ladies event for the first time since 2017 as their ‘1’ team would be victorious by seven points in the finish. Both Tipperary 2 and themselves trailed Tipp 3 by a point after the Scotch Foursomes with the latter having a combined 81 points from their two pairs.
45 and 43 point Singles totals from Eileen McCarthy and Charlotte Blake turned the Singles in Kerry 1’s favour however as Lisa and Catriona O’Connor brought in a further 73 points combined to give them their winning total of 241. Cork 2 would come through to take second as Nicola Ahern and Gillian Morrissey broke 40 points in the Singles to help them towards a final total of 234 with Siobhan Foy and Vera McCarthy their team-mates.
Tipperary 2 claimed third in the finish, Liz Forde scoring 41 points in the Singles as they finished ahead of their county women on the ‘3’ team by a single point 230 as opposed to 229.
Overall a good test of all concerned in the Kingdom with the increase in Ladies entries an encouraging sign.
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