New season just around the corner

I doesn’t seem very long ago that I was writing the end of the year review for 2017 looking back over what was arguably Kerry’s most successful year on the golf course where three national titles came to the Kingdom and we went so close to adding two others with young players to the fore proving that an investment in youth does pay dividends.

I received an email from the Munster Branch last week with the draw for this year’s Irish Junior Foursomes and it served as a timely reminder that the new golfing season is not too far away, so if you’re one of those who haven’t picked up a club in months, then now is the time to do it or you’ll be playing “Catch-up” when the action gets underway.

Easter is early this year with Easter Sunday falling on April 1st so naturally it follows on that those events that are usually hosted around Easter are earlier this time with the Irish Junior Foursomes as a prime example.

The action in this event gets underway on Good Friday, March 30, at eight different locations across Munster but it is the qualifier at Tralee that concerns the Kerry clubs where Ballybunion, Killarney Dooks, Tralee and Kanturk are in action bidding to become one of the two qualifiers who will advance to the match-play stages.

This event is for boys under the age of 18 and the maximum handicap allowed is 12.

They will play stroke-play at Tralee where the best two team will then advance to the match-play stages along with two teams from each of the other seven venues across Munster.

Last year Ballybunion and Tralee qualified and met in the first round of matchplay where Ballybunion beat their old rivals by a one-hole margin at Dooks.

Ballybunion then went on to beat Lee Valley, Tramore and Castletory to win the Munster title and having then beaten Athenry in the All-Ireland semi-finals at Rockmount in County Down, they were beaten by Bangor in the national final.

Two of last year’s side James O’Callaghan and Phillip Byrne Junior are eligible again this time, so no doubt Ballybunion will be hoping to qualify and maybe go one better this year.

Easter of course is also time for the Ladies to begin their action and the Munster Championships are usually held around this time.

Killarney’s beautiful Mahony’s Point is the venue for this year’s championships, which get underway on Tuesday March 27 with the Junior Championship which is confined to ladies with a handicap between 9.5 (10) and 18. In this event the ladies will play one round of qualifying and the top 16 players will then fight it out in match-play to decide the winner.

The Senior Championship is for players under the handicap of 9.4 and is confined to the 48 lowest handicap entries. Play begins on Wednesday March 28th with 36 holes of stroke-play where the top 36 players and ties will then advance and play another eighteen holes on the Thursday.

Personally, I think that the event has been destroyed by this format since it changed a few years back. It was always better in my opinion, with a stroke-play qualifier and then the match-play, but maybe that’s just because I’m old-fashioned and a great lover of the match-play format.

So, much to look forward to in the coming weeks as Spring approaches (hopefully).

At the presentation of prizes for The Golf Shop, College St sponsored competition at the Ross GC were, from left: Donal Considine, sponsor, Sean Moynihan, Club Captain Alan Flynn, Tony Lenihan andJohn Cuskelly.