Old County Pitch & Putt Club

The Final Chase II event of the season took place last weekend. It was extended over extra weekend due to the death of one of our members son and the inclement weather.  Our winners are listed below. Tom O'Reilly was once again in the winners, what a year for Tom who continues to shoot brilliant low scores each weekend he won the 36 Gross with a fantastic 87. Tom's brother Liam our Captains Prize winner was in equally hot form with a 90 nett and Kevin Berminghmam too was among the winner, Jim would be so delighted to have Kevin winning in his event after the great friendship / respect  they shared for many years.  In the Inters, two more gents who knew and worked with Jim so well was the evergreen "Christy Broe" and David Redmond two stalwarts of the club they won the 36 Nett and Gross Prizes and Stephen Keatinge is another to follow in his fathers footsteps and what it means to support the club and serve it so diligently he wins the 18 Nett prize.

In the juniors we had Brian Birrell who is really finding his best game and 2020 promises to be an exciting year for him on this evidence, our former president Michael Quinn and Rob Ryan were all in the winners enclosure here. 

In the ladies again we saw three really hard working commitee people claim prizes in Kathleen Condron, Ann O'Shea and Noeleen O'Reilly. and three great supporters of the many competitions in the club Teresa Keating, Pauline Balfe and Vera Glennon.    These all picked up the graded prizes. 

The winner though with a fine 84 nett in very challenging conditions was Luke Birrell. Luke was a player with a lot of promise but gave up the game due to work and  school committments. He is back and great to see him winning this event. A promising player with a great attitude on the course. Well done Luke, Jim would be delighted to see Luke win his trophy. The Presentation of Prizes along with the Trophy will be held during a break in the Sean McDermott Cup on Sunday roughly around 12,30. We hope to have members of the Byrne family in attendance and we really would love to see all our winners there if possible, Jim's committment to the club was unquestionable over 51 years and  I know how much it would mean to the family to have the winners present to receive their prize. Well done to all and a big thanks to all who played over last 2 weeks. 

Anniversary Trophy - Jim Byrne Memorial Cup: 

Winner: Luke Birrell: 84N

Gents Senior 36 Nett: Liam O'Reilly 90N

Gents Senior 36 Gross: Tom O'Reilly  87

Gents Senior 18 Nett: Kevin Bermingham 46N (o.b.9)

Gents Inter 36 Nett: Christy Broe 99N

Gents Inter 36 Gross; David Redmond  111

Gents Inter 18 Nett: Stephen Keatinge 48N (o.b.9)

Gents Junior 36 Nett: Brian Birrell 89 (o.b.9)

Gents Junior 36 Gross: Rob Ryan 112

Gents Junior 18 Nett:  Michael Quinn 43N

Ladies A 36 Nett: Pauline Balfe 90 

Ladies A 36 Gross: Vera Glennon 107

Ladies A 18 Nett: Ann O'Shea 47

Ladies B 36 Nett: Kathleen Condron 91N

Ladies B 36 GRoss: Teresa Keating 122

Ladies B 18 Nett: Noeleen O'Reilly 45. 

Ladies and Gentlemen last week end we had a full competition with over 120 cards played. Thank you very much to everyone who supported the competition. Special shout out to the O’Reilly brothers battling it out for the Nett prize in the Seniors, with Tom pipping Liam on back 9 for the Nett prize. However Liam’s score was good enough to win the Gross prize. Well done lads. In the Ladies A section Vera Glennon shot an excellent 3 under par to win the Nett prize. Congratulations to all the winners across the grades, full results here…

With the outing on Saturday and Club Strokeplay on Sunday, we just had a sweepstake this weekend.

The highlight of the event was a fantastic 42 Gross by Conor O’Shea playing off a 5 h/c (53 nett stableford points). Brilliant scoring. Attached are the winners in each grade. Well done all. Results are listed below.

 

 

The Club strokeplay took centre stage on Sunday with 5 more champions to be crowned in the final Tier 1 Championship of 2019. The weather was very hot for the players but any doubts whether this would impact on the scoring was quickly dispelled as we saw some  record breaking low scores by the players.

In the Ladies B section The event  was played over 18 holes  and  we had 7 ladies taking part. Well done to the ever young Phyllis, Angela,Alice, Kathleen, Vera, Jenn and Margaret for getting out there and playing. The runner up was our lady captain Kathleen Condron with a score of 67 and the winner by 4 shots with a 63 gross was Vera Moore. Congratulations Vera, our Ladies B Strokeplay champion 2019. Another fantastic result for Vera who has been so consistent and a regular winner on the circuit throughout the season. 

In the Ladies A. They were playing their championship over 36 holes and although Agnes Redmond was the holder, we once again anticipated a tight dual between Pauline Balfe & Vera Glennon for the top prize. It was tight after the first 18 holes  with Vera Glennon leading the way on 55  followed by Pauline Balfe but  Ann O’Shea  equallled Pauline score  of 57 to lie just two shots back.   In the 2nd  round   Dolores Mason added  an excellent  57  to her 1st round 60 for a total of 117, Ann O’Shea  could not repeat her 1st round score and added a 61 to finish on 118. The battle for first place was between Pauline Balfe and Vera Glennon and both matched it each other in the 2nd round  shooting a 56 which meant Pauline  could not overhaul Vera and had to settle for the  runner up spot  on 113 .  Vera though with a score of 111 recaptured the Strokeplay title and having won in last week's over 55 event and at the scratch cup. It capped a memorable ten days for her as she avenged her matchplay defeat earlier this month.

The Gents Junior event sadly saw just 5 men taking part. In the opening round we saw the return of an Old County favourite Brian Gorman (great to see him back playing) lead the way  with a 56  and it gave him a 4 shot lead over Kevin Keatinge ,our club celebrity  Patrick Charlie was well in the hunt after his score of  61  and Matt O’Donovan to was well placed  with 62 and Brian  Birrell although last of the 5 with a 63 was still within challenging distance and so it was to prove. In the 2nd round,  Kevin Keatinge and Patrick Charles added 63's to finish on 123 and 124, and our 1st round leader Brian Gorman had a 65 to finish on 121. However it was Brian Birrell a man who narrowly missed out on the Officers Prize earlier this month who produced an excellent 2nd round of 56 and he was to capture the title by 2 shots. Well done to Brian on his win and to the other Brian (Gorman) on an excellent return to our club majors.

The  Gents Inters was to be a 54 hole event and we expected a very tightly bundled leaderboard with so many of these players in fine form. Sixteen took part with the top 8 making the final 18 holes.  Four players hit the 100 mark with Tommy Lynam, David Redmond, Conor O'Shea and Lennon Blake but they were three adrift of the leader Brendan Fitzpatrick who shot a superb 97.  Dublin Strokeplay champion Rob Berney  and Stephen Keatinge both shot 102 to keep in touch.  with Gerry Clarges on 104 and our Officers champion  Tom Balfe on 105 and these were the players to make the play-off.  Sadly Brendan was unable to return and cement the strong position he had established but it meant a 4 way tie for the lead.  There was some excellent scoring in the final round with Gerry Clarges securing the final 18 prize with a 47. It was a real battle for the top spot with Conor O Shea shooting his 3rd round of 50 on the day to finish on 12 under par. Stephen Keatinge, finished superbly as he was  -4 playing the last hole  and -10 overall, he finished with a hole in one and that was enough to edge out Conor O'Shea for the runner up spot.  But the man of the moment,  less than 24 hour after he helped Dublin secure a dominant  Leinster Inter County title in Royal Meath Lennon Blake shoot a final round of 48 to finish on -14  to claim the Gents Intermediate Title for 2019. What a phenomenal weekend for an extraordinary talent. Well done Lennon.

 

The other 4 events were very good but the senior one proved to be very special. One week on for getting a record number of home players through to the final round in the scratch cup and achieving the top 3, we expected this one could see some exceptional scoring and we were not too be dissappointed.  We had ten taking part and just seven played the final round. Stephen Power has been enjoying an excellent year with some fine wins and he put down the marker early with a 94. In normal circumstances this would be a very good score and close to the top of the leaderboard, but this weekend was not normal and players were going lower and lower. Karl Murphy despite an extraordinary piece of bad luck on the 35th that saw him hit the flag and go out of bounds still managed a superb 91 following on nicely from his scratch cup success last Sunday. the other duo who performed so well at the "Christy Broe" Scratch Cup Gary McGreal also shot a 91 and George McGreal with 2 score of 45 was to finish on 90. Great scoring but these were still some way off the lead !!  Tom O'Reilly is normally the main man around old County he would have been dissappointed not to challenge strongly at the DCB and CB scratch cup and when he shot 48 we thought maybe Tom would fall short again. Tom though brushed it off to shoot a course record 39 !! to finish on -21 (87) yet Tom was still not the leader, that honour fell to mr consistency Kevin Bermingham. Kevin was quite simply superb as he shot 43 and 42, 24 birdies and 11 threes and just one bogey. Kevin who had played so well at the 2 recent scratch cups but just kept struggling on some of the back nine, finally found his range on these holes and he finally got the scores his play deserved. 

Onto the final 18 and first out was Kevin Corcoran with a marker.  Kevin went around in a solid 49 to add to his 8 under par of the morning and finish on 13 under par for the championship and 7^th position. Next out was Gary McGreal and Stephen Power.  Stephen added a 48 to his morning score to finish on 20 under par for the championship and 6^th spot.  Gary McGreal in excellent form the last few weeks shoots 8 under par for a total of 25 under par and 3^rd spot. His 8 under par was enough to win the final 18 prize, well done Gary.  The 2^nd last group was Karl and George.  George shooting a 50 gross to finish on 22 under par and 5^th spot. Karl with a final 18 of 47 and a total of 24 under par would claim 4^th spot. The final 2ball saw Kevin Bermingham and Tom O’ Reilly out together. The duo had played together the previous Sunday in the final round of the CB scratch cup and Kevin had finished ahead of Tom.  Whether this was to prove significant this Sunday we will not know, but Kevin showed no chinks in his armour and was rock solid despite the strong challenge posed by Tom and despite an excellent round of 48 by Tom. Kevin was to better it with a 47 and produce a jaw dropping score of -30 for 54 holes. It was quite simply sensational.  It was a clear statement to the other seniors that he has the game to trouble and beat the best in the club in the big championships.  A great defense by Tom and on most days Tom's score of -27 would be more than enough to win the strokeplay but Sunday was no ordinary day and Kevin is no ordinary player. A hugely popular and deserving winner who should finish the season very strongly on the back of a such a dominant win. Well done Kevin.

Thanks to all who came out and played in our 4th Major of 2019 and special recognition to all our winners below. 

Club Strokeplay Results 2019

Gents Senior winner: Kevin Bermingham 132 (-30)

Gents Senior Runner up: Tom O'Reilly 135 (-27)

Gents Senior final 18 winner: Gar McGreal 46 

Gents Inter Winner: Lennon Blake  148 (-14)

Gents Inter Runner Up: Stephen Keatinge 150 (-12) o.b.9

Gents Inter Final 18 Winner:  Gerry Clarges 47 

Gents Junior Winner: Brian Birrell 119

Gents Junior Runner up: Brian Gorman 121

Ladies A Winner: Vera Glennon 111

Ladies A Runner up: Pauline Balfe 113

Ladies B Winner: Vera Moore 63

Ladies B Runner up: Kathleen Condron 67