St Brendan’s, Killarney win National Secondary Schools pitch and putt competition for third successive year

IT was another momentous achievement for Kerry Pitch & Putt last Friday when the St Brendan’s College team of Ben Kelliher, Brian McCarthy and Nathan Cronin won the National Secondary Schools competition for the third successive year for the school in Hillview, Clonmel.

The Killarney school made it a Munster and national double in the process after their victory in the Munster final in Fermoy two weeks earlier as they had eight shots to spare over their counterparts from Leinster in claiming victory. They led by five shots at the halfway stage on a combined two under par from St Kieran’s College, Kilkenny with a further three teams all within an eight shot range of the lead score.

After the second round it came down to the third player score for themselves and Leinster winners Castlepollard Community College from Westmeath. Brian McCarthy and Nathan Cronin combined for seven under par alongside the Westmeath school’s best two schools but Ben Kelliher’s total of four over par was better than a score of 12 over for the Westmeath school’s third player as The Sem B team then had their winning score of 321, three under par.

Robbie Harnett and Fintan Martin, winners of the competition in 2022 and 2023 for the school, finished third overall with their playing partner Ronan Bennet as they combined for a tournament score of seven over par. The other three teams from The Sem all finished between 12th and 14th in the final places as the school’s remarkable run continues in this event.

In a week where there was no major weekend fixture in the county, last Tuesday in Castleisland saw the Tim Scannell Memorial Inter-Club Matchplay title decided between

Tralee 2 and Listowel as despite some close contests it was a 7-2 victory overall for the Tralee team in retaining the title for the club. They started with victories in the Scotch Foursomes with victories at the second play-off hole for the pair of Gavin Carroll and Danny O’Leary and by a margin of 2&1 for Michael Creagh and Mark O’Regan over Listowel pairs Ger Guerin and Trevin Chute along with Kevin McCarron and John Heffernan respectively.

Listowel did keep in touch with a win for Killian O’Gorman and Paul Hayes over Tralee’s Tony Blake and James Smullen on the last hole but O’Gorman was Listowel’s only player to win a match in the Singles as he defeated Mark O’Regan at the third play-off hole.

Danny O’Leary (2&1), Michael Creagh (2&1), Tony Blake (2&1), Gavin Carroll (4&3) and team captain Jason O’Regan (3&2) claimed the other five Singles wins to make it 7-2 overall to Tralee 2. David Hobbert was the other member of the winning Tralee side as we were delighted to have Tim’s mother Maureen on hand to present the prizes to both teams.

The focus now switches to the Bob Casey Inter-Club Strokeplay event which begins from Tuesday, June 11.

This weekend sees the Munster Scotch Foursomes events take place on Saturday and Sunday in Bishopstown in Cork. Tralee are represented in the Mixed and Non-Mixed events.

Meanwhile, the National Matchplay Championships take place on the June bank holiday weekend in Larkspur Park in Cashel and Tipperary Hills in Tipp Town. Kerry will be represented in all three men’s events which are expanded for the first time this year, as well as in the Ladies Nett event.