Enniscorthy Seniors have won through to the All-Ireland finals of the Jimmy Carroll Cup to be held in the organiser's home club of Westmanstown, near Lucan, on Monday, September 7. The team overcame Malahide in Castlewarden on Monday of last week in the Leinster finals. Malahide went down badly, losing 4/0 to a great Enniscorthy team comprising the veteran pairings of Michael Wickham and Tommy Kehoe, Tom Hogan and Jim Hogan, Pat Mulvey and Eamonn Houlihan, John Doyle and George Leech.
An Bainisteóir and past club Captain, Willy Dunne, was at the helm, ably assisted by past club President, Morgan Dunne. The Vice-Captain, Tom Clifford, was on hand to lend support and represent the club in his official capacity.
The final will not be an easy affair as teams battle it out in an eight-way play-off for this prestigious accolade. This is a tournament for gentlemen aged 60 years and over as of April 1.
Teams consist of eight players (four pairs) playing fourball better ball stableford, off three-quarters of players' current handicaps. Team scores will be the aggregate scores from the best three cards and, in the event of a tie, the best fourth card will count, using tie-breaks if required.
Either way, a pennant is secured for up to third place but there is no doubt that Enniscorthy has the winning team. Everyone wishes them the best of luck and all support is welcome.
Tuesday of last week was an 18-hole stableford competition sponsored by Sam McCauley Pharmacy. There was a great array of prizes and we would like to thank our sponsors for their continued support.
Despite the wet weather, Teresa Bailey (19) came in first with a great score of 40 points. In second place was Margaret Frayne (14) who has featured regularly in the prizes this year with another great score of 39 points.
Third was Joan Dunbar (34) on 38 points, and fourth was Bernie Delaney (26) with 38 points. The high-fliers were also out on Tuesday - congratulations to the winner, Annette Wall, and Deirdre Millar who came in second.
A call to all past captains - Friday, September 4, is past Captains' day in Enniscorthy. Please contact the office for details.
The AA Insurance Midland District finals will be held in Mountrath on Sunday, August 30. The line-up is as follows:
In the Junior Cup (handicap 8-14), Enniscorthy v. Moate, singles, five matches in twoball format out at 10.30 a.m.. In the Intermediate Cup (handicap 16-22), Moate v. Enniscorthy, same format with first match out at 11.12 a.m. All support welcome.
Due to the frightful weather conditions during the middle of last week and out of respect for the sponsor, the decision to postpone the Ned Hogan Hire competition to the later dates of Wednesday and Thursday, September 2 and 3, was taken. It was therefore decided to run the competition for those who had entered as a clubsponsored event.
Amongst those who braved the elements and waded through the wet course was Donal O'Brien (20) with 23 points following a last six holes countback, with Alan Kenny (5) also carding a 23. This mid-week's competition is over two days and is sponsored by Connect Electrical.
On Saturday last, the club-sponsored singles attracted a good turn-out with over 100 gents taking part. Paddy Murphy (18) brought in the winning score of 42 points, closely followed by 2009 Captain's prize winner, John Buckley (9), with 41 points.
In third place was Stephen Doyle (21), carding 40 points with a countback on the last nine holes, and the gross went to Lar Ronan (4) with 36 points. The competition scratch score for the day was 38.
There was an unusually low turn-out of just over 80 gents for the Walter Bourke Intermediate Scratch Cup, primarily due to the fact that the course was closed in the earlier part of Sunday morning due to the rainfall during the previous twelve hours.
The course was playing long as the ball remained where it landed or plugged on the fairway as well as strong winds to contend with. However, some did manage to record favourable scores off the blues.
Nigel Cullen (10) won the first gross with 77 on the back nine countback, just ahead of Dan Jordan (11), second gross, also with a 77, and Ted Morrissey (10), third gross, with a 79.
First nett went to Patsy O'Connor (16) with a 71, closely followed by John Hayden (10), second nett, with a 72 on the back nine countback, with Pechelli English (18) carding a 72 for third nett. C.S.S. for the course was 72. We would like to thank the sponsor.
Next weekend's club-sponsored competition is an open four-person scramble (any combination). We also welcome Woodfab Golf Society on Saturday and wish them all an enjoyable day's golfing.
The Niall Mellon Golf Classic team of four (€120) takes place tomorrow (Thursday) and Friday, and there are still some tee-times available. For details please contact Nick Power (0872054076).
The club's new website is attracting large volumes of visitor traffic and we see some hits from as far away as Vietnam and Argentina. The majority are from the Republic but many are also from the U.K. and North America.
Turning these hits into green fees is an important part of our marketing strategy by portraying the best images of the course on the website. We encourage all members with an interest in photography to take the time to utilise their artistic bent to capture appealing images of the course and the flora and fauna during favourable weather conditions.
Congratulations to Jamie Dreelan who took joint third place in the Titleist/Footjoy-sponsored Leinster Boys' Under-15 Close championship at Ashbourne recently. Jamie, who was a valuable member of the winning Barton Cup team of 2008, was just two shots behind the outright winner.
Junior captain and scratch golfer Graham Donohoe, 0.5 for this tournament, took part in the Irish Boys' Close championship recently and attained joint 18th place, scoring a 74, 74, 78, 74 for the event at Bangor. Well done lads!
Graham will be presenting his Captain's prize to the Juniors today (Wednesday), and this is the last of the Wednesday Junior competitions as the holidays draw to a close.
A great battle between two giants of the club will take place shortly. Having won through to the final, Michael Healy and John Mernagh will meet head-to-head for what should be the match of the year in the club singles.
Mick, playing off a handicap of two, fought off fellow rivals with higher handicaps, giving some up to 15 shots. Obviously practice does pay dividends. We wish both a fair, enjoyable and memorable match.
Course sanding will cause course disruption next Monday and Tuesday, but the staff will make every effort to minimise this and hopefully the weather will be favourable for the task.
