A great year for Kerry golf
2017 was perhaps one of the greatest ever years for Kerry golf with the county winning three national titles and reaching the final of two others and Kerry golf has never been in a stronger position.
Let’s begin with men’s golf and Ballybunion’s victorious run in the Irish Junior Cup, which saw them qualify from West Munster and beat Ballykisteen and then Ennis to win the Munster title. In the All-Ireland semi-finals at Carton House they beat Loughrea from Galway at the nineteenth in the deciding match and then Grange from Dublin in most dramatic fashion with a 100-foot putt (again in the deciding match) to lift the national title.
In the Barton Shield, Tralee qualified from the West Munster Section and went on to beat Cork Golf Club by four holes in the provincial semi-finals before taking the Munster title against Castletroy by 8 holes. Sadly, they went down to Galway in the All-Ireland semi-final by four holes.
In the Irish Senior Cup, Ballybunion were the area qualifiers and went on to beat Dungarvan 4-1 in the Munster semi-finals but lost to Limerick in the final by the odd match in five.
In the Jimmy Bruen Shield none of the Kerry clubs made it through qualifying with Newcastlewest contesting the Munster semi-finals where they lost to Ballykisteen, while in the Pierce Purcell Shield, area qualifiers Killarney beat Shannon in the Munster semi-finals but went down to Thurles in the final.
The Irish Mixed Foursomes saw Tralee qualify from West Munster before losing to Gold Coast from Waterford in the provincial semi-finals while in the All-Ireland Inter-club fourball Ceann Sibeal made it through to the Munster semi-finals where they lost to Dromoland Castle.
In the Munster Country Clubs Cup for nine-hole courses Ballyheigue Castle reached the semi-final where they were defeated by Lisselean from near Clonakilty.
Ballybunion dominated the Junior Golf Scene in Kerry, winning the Kerry Junior League, reaching the Munster final of the Fred Daly where they were defeated by Limerick GC in Fermoy and winning the Munster title in the Irish Junior Foursomes to reach the All Ireland semi-final where they beat Athenry by three holes before losing the final to Bangor by seven holes at Rockmount.
IN ladies golf it was a tremendous year also with two national titles as Killarney lifted their first-ever Irish title at Senior Cup level where they beat the Island from Dublin in the semi-finals and then Portrush in the final and they pulled off the double a few weeks later when they beat Roscommon in the All-Ireland final of the Senior Foursomes.
The ladies of Ballybunion went very close to making it four national titles for Kerry when they contested the All-Ireland final of the Revive Active Fourball at Royal Tara but sadly they went down to Killymoon by the odd match in five.
Locally, Ballybunion won the Joe Quinlan Shield while Parknasilla hosted the Kerry Federation events where Kenmare won their fourth Dr Billy O’Sullivan Shield beating Dooks in an epic final in October.
Dooks won the Kerry Shield but the Nines of Kerry Shield for nine-hole courses has yet to be completed with Castlegregory and Ballyheigue in the final, which will be played some time in January.
CASTLEGREGORY again hosted The Kerryman Captain’s Challenge where Julianne Browne from Castleisland took the Ladies Prize and Tralee’s Verners Tess won the Men’s.
Brosna native Margaret McAuliffe, a member of Ballybunion, was selected on the Irish Ladies Seniors team that went on to win the Ladies Seniors Home Internationals at Newport in Wales in October, while David Higgins enjoyed a very successful year on the domestic PGA circuit finishing second in the Order of Merit with ten wins, which culminated in his selection to the Great Britain & Ireland team that beat the USA in the PGA Cup matches at Foxhills in Surrey.
The Waterville man was also a member of the three-man Ireland team that won the European Team Championships in Greece in November.