Last Saturday’s National Mens Strokeplay Championships in South Dublin were a good one for the Tralee club and one that could have been better had it worked differently over both days.
Pride of place went to Jason O’Regan who finished second in the Senior Mens event ensuring that for the second consecutive year a Kerry player finished in that position in the event. O’Regan followed Damien Fleming’s second place last year thanks mainly to a great second 18 holes of eight under par that had him in a share of second place after the first 36 holes on 11 under par.
Jason was four off leader Kieran Earls from the Bruff club in Limerick on 15 under and while he could not bridge the gap to him for the overall honours during the last 18 holes he was able to pull clear of a battle for third place that saw Eddie Hennessy from Waterford finish there on countback. Jason finished the tournament on 15 under par, four off Earls’ winning score of 19 under par again but it was the first time in his long career as a senior player that he finished in the medals at a National Senior Mens Strokeplay following a number of semi-final appearances in the National Matchplay event.
Tralee’s Darren Goodall was the only other Kerry player to make the Senior Mens playoff of 18 players on five under par (Damien Fleming missing out by one on four under) as Darren himself finished the tournament on four under par. In Saturday’s Junior B event at the RGSC course meanwhile, Tralee’s Gerry Lee held the lead both at the halfway and three quarter stage of the event but a disappoint last nine holes saw him finish down the field six shots off the eventual winning score.
No Kerry player made the playoffs in either the Intermediate and Junior A events, Deerpark’s Nathan Cronin came the closest in the Intermediate finishing one shot away while in the Junior A event Listowel’s Paul Hayes missed out on being involved on countback despite reaching the qualifying score of four over par.
This weekend sees Castleisland host their Scratch Cup events on Saturday with cards available from 8.15am-2.30pm (last card). Entry €10 per card as we encourage all Kerry players to support these events being the last Scratch Cup of the year in the county as it is. Elsewhere this weekend Tralee duo Charlotte Blake and Catriona O’Connor are entered in the National Junior Ladies Strokeplay event in Stackallen in Co Meath.
We wish both the very best of luck in this event as well as
