After the success in Tralee the previous weekend at the Munster Inter-Counties, there were two more noteworthy achievements last weekend, as a call-up to the Irish World Cup squad was secured by Deerpark’s Damien Fleming while Tralee’s Sophie Moynihan returned to a runners-up performance at the National Girls Matchplay Championships.
Fleming will be travelling with the Irish Pitch & Putt team as their official sub for the first World Cup in the sport since 2016 next month at the El Vendrell course, Tarragona, Catalonia between October 11th-13th. Fleming earned the honour by means of third place finish at the deciding Irish Team Trial which took place over 54 holes at the St Patricks course in Enniscorthy last Saturday.
After shooting 10 under par for his first 36 holes, Damien shot nine under par for his last 18 holes to put him in contention on 19 under par. A hole-in-one on the last hole by Louth’s Padraic Sarsfield denied him an outright place on the team in finishing on 20 under par with Kildare’s Ian Dillon finishing top of the trials on 26 under par.
National Mens Strokeplay Champion Kieran Earls received the wildcard selection for Pitch & Putt Ireland’s National Executive for the third spot on the team but Pitch & Putt Ireland have decided to take a sub with them for this event with Fleming chosen on the basis of last Saturday’s performance. Congratulations to Damien on his first selection for all in Kerry Pitch & Putt.
Meanwhile last weekend also saw the National U16 Matchplay Championships take place in St Bridgets, Kilcullen, Co Kildare. While Deerpark’s Brian McCarthy’s defence ended at the first hurdle and Listowel duo Ajay Barrett and Jayden Chute were defeated at the quarter-final stage in the Boys Championship event, Tralee’s Sophie Moynihan made it through to Sunday (semi-final stage) in the Girls event in her first competition in the sport in nearly two years. Sophie had come through the Round Robin on Saturday where her opponent was Molly O’Toole from Kildare who recently won the National Girls Strokeplay title.
Sophie triumphed in a battle that went all the way to the final hole before she won at the last hole 1up to reach this final for a second time. Sophie would face Munster Matchplay holder Sarah Ryan from Tipperary in the decider but she lost out by 5&4 in the finish. Commiserations to Sophie on her loss in the final as we hope to see her back again in the future.
This weekend the Kerry Mens team head to Bagenalstown in Carlow for the National Inter-County Championship and we are delighted to say that they will be joined this year by a Kerry Ladies team. Ending an absence of over 20 years by the county by this event, Charlotte Blake, Eileen McCarthy, Lisa and Catriona O’Connor will be hoping to compete for the Nett prize on the weekend as we wish them the very best of luck.
Best Wishes also to the Mens team of Damien, the two Jason’s, Cregan and O’Regan, Michael Conway, Darren Goodall, Jamie Blake and Gavin Carroll as they bid to build on their second place finish at the Munster event in Tralee.
