The Links, Portmarnock

Another amazing year with the society has come to a close and I think you’ll agree we finished in style!  Much appreciation to The Links Portmarnock for affording us the opportunity of running our very first shotgun-start outing sponsored by BMW.  They also laid on a fine breakfast while we enjoyed the Rugby World Cup final in the Jameson Bar, where one of the early winners of the day was Kevin Marley, who predicted that South Africa would lift the Webb Ellis Cup and got closest to the winning score!  The course itself was in supreme condition and although it rained for the last hour or so, it did not affect our enjoyment on the day, nor the high scoring!

Congratulations to George Corrigan who shot a fantastic score of 41 points to beat the field of 63 golfers, which included a hole-in-one on the 11th, just pipping Tadgh O’Meara into second place on a countback, and third place going to Gerry Tobin with a fine score of 39 points.  It was fitting that Vinny Clarke got to witness the hole-in-one as George’s playing partner, since Vinny has kindly sponsored this prize for many years.  Credit to George who did the needful and bought everyone a pint!

Full results from The Links:
Winner – George Corrigan (14) – 41pts C/B

2nd – Tadgh O’Meara (15) – 41pts

3rd – Gerry Tobin (16) – 39pts

C1 (0-13) – Conor Gallagher (4) – 37pts

C2 (14-18) – Martin Kenny (18) – 36pts

C3 (19-28) – Tony Clarke (23) – 33pts

F9 – Kevin Marley (10) – 21pts

B9 – Alan Leonard (23) – 21pts

NTP – Conor Gallagher

Hole-In-One – George Corrigan @ 11th, 8-Iron.

2’s – Tony Casey, Mick Sludds, Conor Gallagher & Mick Chambers. Tadgh O’Meara, eagle at the 8th.
Our huge thanks as always to the sponsor of the day, Tony Casey & BMW.  Tony laid on a wonderful selection of prizes for the winners and brought some additional gifts for the charity raffle.  Thanks to Michael Brennan of Tara Giftworks, who also donated gifts for the raffle, along with his usual NTP sponsorship!  The raffle raised an impressive €660 which will give a nice boost to our annual charitable donations.

Our great appreciation also to Clontarf Castle for their continued support and especially for laying on a fine meal for us in the Indigo Lounge.  Clontarf Castle also kindly presented George with a bottle of champagne for his hole-in-one!

Matchplays

You The Man!

Congratulations to The Clarkes, Tony & Vinny, who won the fourball matchplay trophy, beating Joe O’Flaherty and Stephen Mooney in the final.

Up Mayo!

Congratulations to Michael Chambers for winning the singles matchplay trophy, beating some fine opposition along the way, not the least of which was Bob Fagan in the final.

Many thanks to John Plunkett and Brian Kirwan of Plunkett Kirwan & Co Solicitors for their continued sponsorship of the matchplays.

Player of the Year

That man again….

Very well done to George Corrigan who, with his fabulous 41 points at The Links, managed to leap frog several players to win the Jack Guirke Memorial Player of the Year Trophy with a score of 211 points, beating Kevin Maher into second place by just one point.  Well done to both for playing the most consistent golf of the year.

Many thanks to Michael Norton of Norton Fuels for his continued sponsorship of the Player of the Year.

Portugal
Another fabulous away trip for the society saw us head to Portugal where we stayed in Tavira, considered to be the prettiest town in the Algarve.  The Maria Nova Hotel was perfect, with friendly and helpful staff and a beautiful pool and rooftop area.  The singles outing, sponsored by Alucraft, brought us to Monte Rei Golf Club, which lived up to it’s billing as the number one golf course in Portugal.  Every aspect of the club was simply magnificent, and the weather was beautiful to boot.  On our day off , some 19 golfers chose to play the extra round of golf at Castro Marim, whilst some of us went cruising in the Atlantic from Vilamoura, and others chose to just chill by the pool.  Our team competition was also held at Castro Marim which proved to be a fine, but tricky, golf course.   Air travel and transfers all ran smoothly which is always welcome.

Our congratulations go to Dominic Murray who topped the field of 51 players with an excellent score of 35 points, with second place going to Kevin Marley with 34 points and third place to Louis O’Carroll also with 34 points, beaten on the back 9.  Full results as follows:
Winner – Dominic Murray (11) – 35pts

2rd – Kevin Marley (11) – 34pts

3rd – Louis O’Carroll (9) – 34pts

C1 – Shay Fleming (7) – 34pts

C2 – Colm Menton (16) – 33pts

C3 – Kieran O’Connell (20) – 33pts

F9 – John Oppermann (15) – 18pts

B9 – Stephen Mooney (16) – 17pts

2’s – Kevin Marley, Jim Dalton, Jack McHugh, Mick Kenny, Brian O’Callaghan, Ian Mackey, Sean McKeon, Kieran O’Connell, Philip Scallan and Kevin Maher.

The four-man team event was won very impressively by three-man team Declan Murphy, John Oppermann & Philip O’Donoghue with a fantastic score of 90.7, with second place going to Ian Mackey, Tadgh O’Meara, John Gaffney & Stephen Ward with 88 points. Full results:

Winners: Declan Murphy, John Oppermann & Philip O’Donoghue – 90.7pts

Runners-up: Ian Mackey, Tadgh O’Meara, John Gaffney & Stephen Ward – 88pts

Third: Kingsley Lewis, Kevin Marley, Colm Menton & Kieran O’Connell – 87pts

Our huge thanks to first time sponsor, Jack McHugh and Alucraft.  Jack kindly presented all winners with vouchers.

Important Dates

As promised, here is some early advice on the dates for next year’s away trips, so you can plan your holidays around them.  Thursday 4 June to Sunday 7 June will be our trip to Doonbeg and Dromoland, and we travel to Spain to play Los Colinas & La Finca, staying in Cabo Roig from Wednesday 30 September to Sunday 4 October, between Murcia & Alicante.  More information to follow on both of these fabulous trips and deposits will be taken at the AGM, which is confirmed for 21 January 2020.