Blessington Lakes Golf Club

The Blessington Lakes mixed team beat The Curragh golf club in a nail biting encounter on Monday evening. It was the 2nd round and with three matches at home and two matches away we were always going to have a slight advantage but it was quite strange the way events unfolded.

The home matches remained very tight over the front 9 holes but word was filtering through from the Curragh that we were well up in both matches. Suzanne Hegarty and Paul McGee turned an impressive 6up while Paddy Carthy and Julie Walshe were 4 up after 9. These two away pairings held steady on the way in and won their matches. So with the two away matches in the bag most would have expected we would take the tie comfortably.. this wasn’t to be.

At home Philip Wardick and Nicola Kearns were 1 down through 9 holes but fought back winning three in a row from the turn however their opponents played some great golf to get the advantage back and were 2 up with 2 to play. Meanwhile the 2nd pairing of Anne Kelly & Jerry Bergin lost their match 3&2 having turned all square. The other remaining match Diarmuid McCarthy & Breda Walshe kept a slim advantage throughout their game and turned 2up, they held on to this lead through the 16th but lost 17th to be 1up playing the 18th.

Back to the 1st match of Philip & Nicola who brilliantly won the 17th & 18th to bring their match to extra holes, down the 19th they went but a regulation par from the Curragh paring was good enough to win the point. This meant that all eyes were on the final match going down 18, both teams with 2 points each. Having missed the green left in 3, Diarmuid and Breda chipped on a two putted to guarantee a third round match against either Dunmurray Springs or Craddockstown.

Well done to the team and managment and we look forward to the third round.

Rainbow protects the 5th Green during the match

We all look at the Ryder Cup each year and would love to be able to take part in something with such tradition, so competitive and yet so friendly. Our Honorary Secretary Joe Walker brought an idea to the committee at the beginning of the year to hold a one day annual challenge between Blessington Lakes and our local neighbours Tulfarris. The challenge could be hosted by each club in alternative years and would be held each year in September.

The idea is play in the true spirit of golf with the oppertunity for members at all levels to compete on the same team representing the respective clubs.

Following a meeting held today between the club captain’s and hon secs of Blessington Lakes and Tulfarris the following details were discussed and agreed.

Blessington Lakes will host the inaugural match in 2012 and Tulfarris will host the match in 2013, with each club hosting the match in alternate years. The first match has been fixed for the 15th September 2012. The match will be played in the middle of September every year.

Format

The format agreed on is fourball better ball matchplay with 7 pairings making up each team. Pairings will be categorised as follows

• 2 parings from Cat 1 0-11
• 2 pairings from Cat 2 12-18
• 2 pairings from Cat 3 19-28
• The final pairing will be made up of the Captain and Vice Captain of each club, should either be not available the captain will nominate a suitable replacement.

The handicap held on the Monday before the match will be the handicap to qualify the player for his category however the payer will play off his current handicap on the day. Scoring will be matchplay. The lowest handicap in the fourball will go to scratch and concede ¾ ‘s of the difference in handicap to the rest of the players in the fourball. There will be 3 points to play for in each match with a total of 21 points overall.

1 point for winning the front 9
1 point for winning the back 9
1 point for the overall result

This ensures the players will have something to play for throughout their match and makes it less likely that a match will finish early.

Qualification

There will be a year long qualification process to make the team on the day using the player of the year competition. The top 3 available players in the player of the year standings on the Sunday before the event from each category will automatically make the team and the club captain will also get to pick one wild card from each category to make the team. Player of the year points are currently awarded for monthly medals, captain’s prize, presidents prize and the club matchplay.

A presentation of the trophy and meal will follow the golf. This event promises to be a great social occasion for the two clubs which will hopefully be the beginning of a long history for the trophy and the event.

The Provincial Towns campaign got underway on Saturday afternoon with a mouth watering tie against the 2009 champions Cill Dara. This is the team that of course defeated our team in the final of 2009 and this is the first time we have met since the day.

We did have the advantage of having five of the matches at home but still knew we would need to play to the highest standard to get a result. It ended up being an extremely tight match but thankfully we came out on top by winning some crucial matches by the narrowest of margins.

Sean Farrell in the first match turned 4up after 9 holes but Cill Dara fought back to bring it to a play off where thankfully a par was good enough to win the match on the 19th hole. Shortly after this Jamie Tutty finished off his match by winning the 15th & 16th to take a 3 & 2 victory.

At this stage we had suffered two defeats away so both teams were level with all remaining matches still alive and very tight. Donie McEvoy reached the 18th tee all square but managed to win it with a par. Meanwhile Brendan Flynn won his match on the 18th away followed shortly by Vincent Chapman taking a win on the 19th away. Vincent’s win sealed the victory for Blessington Lakes on a day where 4 matches went down 18 and two down 19.

We will face Baltinglass in the 2nd round which will also prove to be difficult opponents.

Team
Sean Farrell
Donie McEvoy
Jamie Tutty
Colin Kelly
Ronan Maguire

Eddie Kelly
Alan Doolan
Vincent Chapman
Brendan Flynn

Dave Callaghan’s Leinster Fourball team managed to keep the momentum of recent interclub success going with a victory over Carlow on Friday. With two matches at home and three away it was never going to be easy but the team showed it’s class by winning the two matches at home and one away.

The team will now face either Rathsallagh or Abbeyleix in the last 32 of the competition.

Team
Pat Nolan & Gerry Murray
Joe Walker & Noel Billane

Dave Callaghan & Ray Murphy
Joe O’Toole & Joe McKeever
Dennis Hennesy & Pat Dempsey