There were three Kerry medal winning performances at the Munster Adult Strokeplay Championships in Ardnacrusha, Co Clare last weekend as the three different types possible were all won as part of it.
Gold came for Tralee’s Reece Sugrue as he won only the second ever Munster Junior B Mens Strokeplay Championship with a clear five shot victory in the 36-hole event. Rounds of five over and two under par gave Reece his winning score as he won by five shots from Waterford’s Patrick Walsh and Crosshaven’s William Condon after both players finished on eight over par.
Reece’s win came on Sunday morning as it has been preceded by a silver medal winning performance by his club-mate Catriona O’Connor in Saturday afternoon’s Junior Ladies event. Catriona finished on +23, five shots behind winner Lorraine Creed of Tipperary on +18 but one ahead of Cork’s Gillian Morrissey in third on +24. With no Kerry medals won in either the Intermediate Mens or Junior A Mens events it was left to Deerpark’s Damien Fleming to win the third Kerry medal on Sunday evening.
Damien made it a second provincial medal of the year for himself to go with the runner-up finish at the Munster Matchplay to Tralee’s Jason Cregan as he finished third behind Tipperary duo Stephen Shoer and Stephen O’Reilly in the final standings. After shooting 13 under for his first 36 holes, Damien had the best Final 18 score of nine under par to finish the tournament on 22 under par, with Shoer finishing on 24 under and O’Reilly on 23 under. After securing his place on the Kerry Senior Mens team earlier last week after a playoff with club-mate Gavin Carroll Tralee’s Jason O’Regan finished seventh overall in the event on 18 under par.
Jamie Blake and Michael Conway just missed out on the Final 18 on nine and eight under par respectively but it was a decent showing for the county at the tricky Clare venue. Elsewhere last week the County U16 Strokeplay took place in Listowel as Deerpark’s Brian McCarthy kept his recent winning streak going. Following wins in the County and Munster Matchplay he made it a county double for himself as a strong eight under par score gave him a clear six shot victory over his nearest challengers.
Club-mate Ben Kelliher and Listowel’s Ajay Barrett were closest to him on two under par with Kelliher finishing as Runner-Up overall on a better Back 18 with Ajay winning the Boys 13-15 section as a result. Ajay’s Listowel club-mate Thomas Keane was second in this category on level par as level par (108) was also the winning score in the Boys 8-12 category. Here Deerpark’s Aodhan O’Halloran had a 10-shot victory from club-mate Fionn McMonagle as the Girls prizes were won by Shona Griffin (Winner) and Sinead Kelly (Runner-Up).
This weekend we wish Kerry competitors travelling to the Irish Open event in Ryston, Newbridge, Co Kildare the very best of luck as we also confirm that the National Strokeplay Qualifiers will take place in Deerpark on Sunday July 28th as originally scheduled.
