Dear Member,

I hope you are all keeping well and looking forward to as many outings as possible in this year’s great line-up.

The European Club

Another year gets underway for our great society with a trip to the ever challenging European Club, kindly sponsored by The Airport Driving School and Derek Erskine. After a couple of pandemic related cancellations, we are very grateful to the management at The European Club for accommodating us. The course was in excellent condition and played as tough as ever with a strong wind causing most of us some difficulties.

Congratulations to Niall O’Reilly who produced a fantastic winning score of 34 points to win The Memorial Cup, traditionally played for at our first outing of each season, and the fabulous first prize sponsored by the Airport Driving School. Second place went to Dave Cassidy (BM) with a great score of 29 points beating Ian Mackey into third spot by a single point. Great shooting gents.

We returned to The Indigo Lounge in The Clontarf Castle for our prize presentation. With a good turnout from the members, it was a great opportunity to catch up with everyone after the break. Our thanks as always to The Clontarf Castle for looking after us so well.

Full results from The European Club as follows:

The Memorial Cup Champion – Niall O’Reilly (19) 34pts

2nd – David Cassidy BM (7) – 29pts

3rd – Ian Mackey (10) – 28pts

Class 1 (scr-13) – Mick Chambers (5) – 26pts

Class 2 (14-20) – Dave Walshe (19) – 26pts

Class 3 (21-32) – Kevin Griffin (22) – 26pts

Seniors – Jim Dalton (25) – 23pts

F9 – Sean Reid (15) – 15pts

B9 – Kieran Montgomery (16) – 15pts

NTP – Paul Goti

2’s – Joe O’Flaherty, Cian Bennis and Conor Dalglish

Baltray

Next up is our return to long time favourite County Louth Golf Club on Friday 20th May, kindly sponsored by Brendan Fagan and Stock Design.

Tees are booked from 9.30am to 12.20pm. Green Fee is €75 which includes your two’s entry and charity contribution. Format is singles stableford in 4-balls. As always, Baltray have advised that there will be food available before and after golf.

Sign-on night is Thursday 12th May at 8.00pm in Knight’s Bar in the Castle. Don’t forget the new card payment system is now in place as we can no longer accept cash.

Rosapenna

With our first away trip coming exactly two weeks after our Baltray outing, the committee have lots of information to share:

The date is the Bank holiday w/e in June, arriving Friday evening 3rd June, returning Monday 6th, golf Saturday and Sunday from 10.30am.

Venue is Rosapenna Hotel & Golf Resort, Downings, Co Donegal, F92 PN73. Phone: (074) 915 5301

Best route, Monaghan, Omagh, Strabane, Letterkenny , 3 hours 40 mins drive.

The away trip is once again kindly sponsored by Gallagher Quigley Estate Agents, Conor & Rory Gallagher.

Presentation will be on the Sunday night, 8pm drinks, 8.30pm dinner in the main hotel restaurant. Please note that The Vardon restaurant has a no shorts policy.

We have all 18 Buggies available, pre-booked for our group, please email Tony Buckley anthony@styletex.ie to reserve, €40 per buggy. Older members/medical cases will get first preference.

With sixty players travelling, please co-operate with your starter Bryan by being available a minimum of 15 mins before your tee time and please return signed completed cards before you leave the course.

The competition is a two day event, stableford score from both days combined will determine the prize winners, last day count back applies. Note for POY, the first days score only will count.

Our sponsors, the ever-dapper Gallagher’s, have added in a novelty best dressed golfer prize, so let’s see some style out there.

The hotel is lauded for its fine dining, the village has limited pub grub available so we recommend that you prearrange a dinner in the Hotels Vardon restaurant on Friday or Saturday with your buddies (074 9155301). 4 course dinner is €50. The hotel bar will have casual dining available. A go-to pub for the group will be the Harbour Bar, a 10 min walk through the village, and it also serves decent pub grub, but expect all local hostelries to be jammed on this bank holiday weekend. The Golf club also has a good bar and catering.

The hotel has a pool, steam room, whirlpool and sauna, and for those more adventurous swimmers, there’s a lovely cove at the rear of the hotel, so bring the trunks!

Time-sheets & rooming details will be distributed after the Baltray outing,

All outstanding balances must be paid by Friday 6th May please!

Matchplays

Please ensure that you arrange your matches as early as possible. Results have been very slow to come in so far. Make sure you contact Mick Kenny 087 2438502 with your results.