Dear Member,

Doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun!  Our 30th Anniversary year is certainly flying by with another two successful outings under our belt.

Our trip to beautiful Druids Glen for our Gallagher Quigley sponsored September outing was another outstanding success for the society.  With 56 golfers teeing it up, it was Aubrey Woolfson who produced the magic with a tremendous score of 41 points on a course that most found to be a tough test.  Huge thanks as always to our sponsors on the day, Conor & Rory Gallagher of Gallagher Quigley Estate Agents who provided a fine selection of wine hampers for our prize presentation.  Thanks to the lads also for sponsoring the complimentary drink we all received on arrival at Yangs.  Full results below.

Winner – Aubrey Wolfson – (27) – 41pts

2nd – Mick Chambers – (6) – 35pts

3rd – Sean Guirke – (11) – 33pts

C1 – Shay Fleming – (7) – 32pts

C2 – Tony Buckley – (16) – 30pts

C3 – Emmet Memery – (22) – 29pts

F9 – Joe Enright – (14) – 20pts

B9 – John Gaffney – (18) – 20pts

NTP – Shay Fleming

2’s – Shay Fleming – 8th.

Our 30th Anniversary dinner at Yangs was a tremendous success.  With the restaurant booked out completely for the society, we numbered 118 diners made up of members and their partners and were treated to a delicious banquet of fine Chinese food.  Well done to all at Yangs for looking after us so well.  Music on the night came from Tropical Storm, who strummed their way brilliantly through the restaurant, giving us all an opportunity for a fun sing-along.  We also collected a little over €1,000 from our charity raffle.  Well done to the winners and thanks to everyone for your donation.

PGA Catalunya, Girona

One massive success following another, our away trip to Girona did not disappoint.  The culmination of some 15 months careful planning, this proved to be one of the best away trips for the society.  Girona is another excellent destination with a fine hotel in the centre of the city, walking distance to lovely restaurants and bars, and all within a 20 minute bus transfer of the stunning PGA Catalunya golf resort.

Of the 56 who travelled, 54 golfers teed it up on the Stadium course at PGA Catalunya for the Ailesbury & Ashbury Retirement Homes sponsored outing.  The course was outstanding and tough!  Congratulations to Dave O’Halloran, who took the honours with a fine score of 33 points.  Is that a bar of soap Dave is holding below?  Our huge thanks as always to the sponsor on the day, Bob Fagan, who supplied the prizes for the presentation.   A special mention goes to Bob who also posted a great score but declined to receive his own sponsored prize.

Full results from PGA Catalunya:

Winner – Dave O’Halloran – 33pts

2nd – Kevin Maher – 32pts

3rd – Shay Fleming – 32pts

C1 – Sean Guirke – 32pts

C2 – John Opperman – 32pts

C3 – Fergus Traynor – 29pts

F9 – Gerry O’Dwyer – 20pts

B9 – Paddy Ryan – 17pts

2’s – Tony Casey, Fergus Traynor, Jim Dalton, Philip McGowan, Patrick Ryan, Louis O’Carroll, Stephen Ward & Shay Fleming.

NTP – Kingsley Lewis

We returned to PGA Catalunya’s Tour Course for our four-man team event.  This is another beautiful course in fine condition and played a little bit gentler for us handicapped golfers.   54 golfers turned up to play and congratulations to Kevin Maher, Joe Enright, Alan Harper and Captain Mick Kenny who returned a tremendous score of 92 points to win the sweep.

A special mention also for the Segway enthusiasts who took the option to tour Girona on two wheels.  Check out the daredevil photos in the website Gallery, along with some great photos from the trip!

Portmarnock Links & The Indigo

Our final outing of the year is our annual return to The Links, Portmarnock on Saturday, 3rd November, kindly sponsored by Brian O’Callaghan and East Coast Inshore Fishing.  Tee is booked from 9.30am.  Time sheet will be available in Clontarf Castle on Thursday 25 October 8.00pm to 9.30pm.  Cost will be €55 including dinner, 2’s and charity fund.

Prize presentation will be in The Indigo Lounge, Clontarf Castle, meeting at 6.30pm, dinner at 7.00pm followed by prize presentation.  There will be entertainment for the evening.  This is our end of year dinner for members and ALL members are welcome.

Prizes will also be presented on this evening for the Player of the competition, sponsored by Michael Norton and Norton Fuels, and for the single and fourball match play competitions sponsored by Brian Kirwan and John Plunkett of Plunkett Kirwan & Co Solicitors.

Here’s the latest standings from the POY with 1 outing to go:

1st – Sean Guirke – 209pts

2nd – John Opperman – 201pts

3rd – Mick Chambers – 199pts

4th – Kingsley Lewis – 195pts

5th – Ian Mackey – 195pts

6th – Dave Walshe – 190pts

In the singles matchplay final are Robbie Greenhalgh and Jim Stanley & the fourball matchplay final will be contested by Alan Leonard & Paul Goti versus Andy Flynn & Dominic Murray.

Best of luck to all!