There was more history for Kerry Pitch & Putt last Sunday at the Cunnigar club in Dungarvan, Co Waterford as for the first time ever two Kerry Senior Mens players contested the Munster Senior Mens Matchplay final.
Needing to retain his title to book his place in the National Matchplay Finals, Jason Cregan duly obliged with a brilliant performance all weekend as he made Deerpark’s Damien Fleming wait a little while longer to complete a personal ‘grand slam’ of county, provincial and national individual titles. The journey started for both players with two matches on Saturday following by a tough three game schedule on the Sunday.
Jason beat his club-mate Jamie Blake by 5&4 in the First Round before following up with a 2&1 win over Tipperary’s Mick Fennell in Round 2 to make it through to Sunday. For Damien Saturday saw him beat Limerick’s Thomas Hanley 3&2 before defeating Cork’s Bryan Delaney by the same score in a repeat of the 2019 National Matchplay Final between the pair. The quarter-final stage was dramatic for both. Jason was facing elimination in being one down to reigning National Matchplay champion Stephen O’Reilly of Tipperary at the penultimate hole.
He managed to overcome the obstacle of a tree to par the hole and draw the match level before getting a Hole-In-One on the last to win the match 1up! Damien meanwhile was two down with six to play over Cork’s John Walsh before birdieing the last six holes to win on the last and make it through to the semi-finals instead. Damien himself was a good 6&5 winner over National Senior Strokeplay holder Stephen Shoer while Jason came good in the second 18 of his semi-final with Cork’s Rob O’Donoghue to win by 3&1 and set up the all-Kerry affair.
The final was tight for long stages; Damien did lead 2up at one stage before Jason pulled him back level as the match went into the second 18. Damien did manage to go 1up again but Jason was level again with nine holes to play. On the 14th hole second time around Jason went ahead for the first time before a bogey on the 17th drew the pair level playing the very final hole. Damien could only find the middle of the green with his tee-shot as Jason’s effort was right up at the pin.
Damien missed his putt leaving Jason the opportunity to knock in the winner for a 1up success for a win that had extra meaning for him given the significance of National Matchplay qualification. Jason replicated his club-mate Jonathon Goodall in retaining a Munster Senior title as Jonathon won the Strokeplay event in both 2011 and 2012. This Sunday will see the National Matchplay draws which will be eagerly awaited by all of Kerry’s qualifiers.
Elsewhere it wasn’t a great showing by the Kerry contingent in the South-East. Mark O’Regan did make the Junior Mens quarter-finals on Sunday but lost a tight encounter with eventual runner-up Dylan Ahern at the last hole one down. His mother Bernadette was beaten in the Junior Women quarter-finals meanwhile as both Lisa and Catriona O’Connor fell at the first hurdle in the defence of their Intermediate and Junior titles.
This Friday meanwhile sees the National Secondary Schools Finals take place in Hillview in Clonmel as five teams from St Brendans College Killarney and one from St Michaels College, Listowel are amongst the 18 teams in the final. The County Board wishes all six Kerry representatives the very best of luck on Friday.
