County Strokeplay titles for O’Donoghue and McCarron

LAST Sunday the Deerpark Pitch & Putt Club hosted the Kerry County Strokeplay Finals. While the weather was wintry at best with high winds over fifty players competed.

In the ladies grade it was local Sheila O’Donoghue who won out with Tralee’s Lisa O’Connor pipping Sheila’s sister Eileen Switzer on back eighteen for the second spot.

In the Senior grade another first was developing with Deerpark’s John McGrath coming in with thirteen under par pipping his club mate Damien Fleming on back eighteen. It was Damien’s playing partner, County Board Chairman Listowel’s Declan McCarron, who had eclipsed the field with a brilliant seventeen under par to win his first County title becoming the Kerry Senior Strokeplay champion 2017.

The Intermediate grade where again a huge field of twenty two players competed Deerpark’s John O’Brien returned a eight under score to lead however with many players yet to come in the defending champion Tralee’s Jason Cregan posted a nine under total to win the Intermediate title by one.

The Junior grade produced something of a dream result with Listowel player Killian O’Gorman posting a seven over total only to be beaten by Gleneagle and County Board stalwart Sean O’Brien who returned a fantastic five over total to win a County title for the very first time.

This Saturday and Sunday all eyes turn to the ESB club in Cork for the Munster Strokeplay Finals, here Kerry have fourteen finalists.

On Saturday Tralee’s Lisa O’Connor will play in the Ladies Junior grade in a field of 22 players. Also on the same day the Gents Juniors will compete with five Kerry players made up of a Tralee quartet of Pa Byrne, David Hobbert, Tommy Higgins and Tim Scannell along with Newmarket’s Chris Fleming.

On Sunday the Inters and Seniors will compete with five Intermediates including a Tralee trio of Jason Cregan, Alan Hobbert and Danny O’Leary along with Deerpark’s John O’Brien and Listowel’s Chris Curran. The seniors will have three competing with the Deerpark duo of Damien Fleming and John McGrath along with Tralee’s Tony Blake.