There was great joy for the Blake family from Tralee last weekend at the Munster Scotch Foursomes events in Bishopstown, Co Cork.
Father, son and daughter all won prizes with each other as dad Tony and son Jamie won Sunday’s Non-Mixed section of the event.
Rounds of 45 and 49 points gave them victory on countback from a local Bishopstown pair after both ended up on 94 points after 36 holes as Tony & Jamie’s second 18 of 49 points was two better than the score of the local duo over the same distance. It was the second time in three years that a pair from Tralee won the event with both Keith O’Brien & Paul O’Shea having won on home turf back in 2022.
Winning on countback made up things in one way for Jamie as his sister Charlotte and himself missed out on claiming second overall on Saturday in the Mixed event for the same reason. Their score of 87 points was good enough for the First Session prize in the section however as Tony had led the Gross section of the Mixed with Lisa O’Connor after the same first session before a number of pairs shot better scores in the second session.
Meanwhile on another Cork course on Sunday Damien Fleming was celebrating another big Scratch Cup win as a 30 under par total for his 54 holes gave him victory in the Rocklodge Scratch Cup a venue where he is an associate member of. It was the second time he won a Scratch Cup there having won the 2020 event when it was only played over 36 holes due to the Public Health Restrictions at the time.
It sets him up nicely for this weekend’s National Matchplay Championships, the blue riband of the sport in Ireland as he has a very difficult first assignment on Saturday morning in Larkspur Park in Cashel. He faces defending champion Stephen O’Reilly from Hillview in Clonmel in the very first match of the Senior Mens event as he bids for a fourth title overall. It will be a momentous tournament for Kerry in one way as for the first time ever two Kerry winners of a National Senior Mens title will play in the same event.
2004 winner Derry McCarthy returns to the event for the first time in 19 years as he plays Bellewstown’s Ian Farrelly in the afternoon session on Saturday. In total Kerry have eight players amongst the field as Munster Senior Matchplay champion Jason Cregan faces Tipp Hills’ Anthony Culhane in Round 1. Jamie Blake faces National Senior Mens Strokeplay holder Stephen Shoer from Riverdale in Nenagh in Round 1 as Thomas Roche of Tralee faces former runner-up Ian Dillon from St Bridgets in Kildare.
County Matchplay winner Alan Hobbart will face Chris Gallagher from Lucan in Dublin as John McGrath takes on Eoin Aylward from Hillview with Gavin Carroll from Tralee in the final Round 1 match against runner-up from this event in the last two years John Cahill from Fermoy. Of course this year sees Pitch & Putt Ireland expand the Intermediate and Junior Mens events to 64 and 32 player competitions respectively.
Both of these events take place on the Tipp Hills course over Saturday and Sunday before transferring to Larkspur for the conclusion with the other events on the Bank Holiday Monday. Although Kerry had five qualifiers for the Intermediate event, Gearoid Cronin of Deerpark has had to withdraw from the event due to injury as the county will now be represented by Tralee trio Keith O’Brien, Danny O’Leary and Michael Creagh along with Castleisland’s Daniel Broderick Jnr. In the Junior event both Tralee’s Mark O’Regan and John Fitzgerald fly the flag for the county.
In the Ladies Nett event meanwhile both Tralee’s Lisa and Catriona O’Connor are entered in the Round Robin section as the County Board wish all 16 Kerry players taking part this weekend the very best of luck as we hope it will be a successful Bank Holiday Weekend for the county in Tipperary this weekend.
