The overall Gross winner in the Club Championship for 2025 is Aaron Slater and the Net winner is Robert Lyons.
Saturday’s singles stableford: 1st Eugene Lynch 42pts, 2nd Tony Scott 37pts, 3rd Felix Zinyemba 37pts.
Last Friday’s open singles stableford: 1st Gary Dunne 42pts, 2nd Keith Hoare 38pts, 3rd Thomas Kennedy 38pts.
Last Wednesday’s open singles stableford: 1st Joey Connolly 38pts, 2nd Thomas Kennedy 35pts, 3rd Michael Mathews 35pts.
A mid-week early bird offer is currently available – €50 for two with a buggy up to 11am, and you can also avail of membership specials to the end of the year.
Bellewstown Ladies
The result from the Ladies Club Championship after two rounds was as follows:
1st Maria Kelly 139 net, 2nd Audrey Quinn 143 net.
Cloverhill
Sunday August 31 will forever be a milestone in the annals of Cloverhill Golf Club, with the club qualifying for four Cowdy Association Finals.
Credit must go to all four teams – Senior Cowdy, Junior Cowdy, Sam Rutherford and Rossmore Cup who had the hard work done away from home before hosting the home legs.
Our Senior Cowdy side, under Team Captain David Pilkington, only trailed by a point – 14.5 to 13.5 – following their Friday evening visit to Ardglass and became our first finalists with a 20-8 home success.
Three back-to-back home leg semis last Sunday week made for a very tense and busy afternoon.
There was a 12pm start for the Dan Hughes-captained Sam Rutherford team against our near neighbours Ashfield.
The first leg was played the previous day with an 8am start to try beat the bad weather, but it was not to be as Ashfield took a four-hole lead going into the high noon shootout on Sunday.
But Cloverhill comfortably overcame their deficit to set up a final meeting with Edenmore who saw off Tandragee.
The second match out was our Junior Cowdy team, under Frank Ryan, taking on Mayobridge, having secured a 2-2 draw away from home.
The hosts cruised into their fourth consecutive Junior Cowdy Final, having been denied a hat-trick last year by Ashfield.
The third semi-final was in the Rossmore Cup with Omagh. The visitors, who were looking to improve on their 2-2 draw at home, were up against the team led by Captain Paul Lambert and once again Cloverhill proved a fortress, giving up very slim pickings, to earn a final spot against Portadown.
An already busy September for the club has become a lot busier, with four finals added to the agenda. Being in the four finals makes one think that we are a shoe-in for Cowdy Club of the Year, but no so as Edenmore are our opponents in three of the finals, which is another great achievement.
The dates and times for all four finals are as follows:
Senior Cowdy – Sunday Sept 14 at 10.30am (home); Sunday Oct 5 at 10am in Edenmore
Sam Rutherford – Sunday Sept 21 at 12pm (home) Saturday Oct 4 at 1.30pm in Edenmore
Junior Cowdy – Sunday Sept 14 at 12pm (home); Sunday Sept 28 at 12pm in Portadown
Rossmore Cup – Sunday Sept 14 at 2.40pm in Edenmore; Saturday Oct 4 at 12pm (home).
Support for all 4 teams both home and away would be much appreciated
The CTS Electrical Services Downpatrick-sponsored September Medal was played in tough weather conditions, which saw the course play three shots harder than normal.
A level-par nett 70 from Nathan Campbell (42) was the early clubhouse leader on the Saturday, but by the end of play that day Leo McClelland (33) had taken over the lead with a nett 69.
Sunday brought more wind and rain, with only one player getting past Leo.
Ruairí Murchan (11), fourth in the August Medal with a 67, repeated that score to take the outright lead. Ruairí had seen off all comers until Emmett Fearon and Fintan McAlleenan decided to venture out after 3pm. It proved a great decision for Emmett (14) as a birdie at the last hole gave him a nett 67 and the Silver Medal and a place in the October Gold Medal Final by winning the countback.
Anthony McNamee (19), the clubs honorary secretary, was the winner of The Honest Elevator Company-sponsored Friday Open last week. Anthony won with 39 points, depriving the previous week’s winner David Macnamara (18),of back-to-back open wins. David took second on the countback over Larry O’Rourke (8) after both returned 37 points.
Seniors Captain’s Day winner Arthur Doran (29) was back in the winner’s circle, with his 35 points winning the seniors competition on Thursday morning.
Arthur was a point ahead of runner-up Peter Hughes (23), with fellow Granemore native Brian Conroy (24) getting the countback decision over Joe Hazzard (13) for third spot, both with 33 points.
This Thursday morning will be interesting for the seniors, as it follows two days away at Knightsbrook for 24 of them.
Cloverhill Ladies
The weekly singles stableford was won with 34 points by Nicola Reel (16). Nicola finished two clear of the runner-up, Lady Captain Hazel McGill (31).
The ladies will be heading off to Concra Wood shortly to defend the Rose McKeown Cup won on home soil last year. The Annual Mixed Competition (six pairs) is played between Concra, Mannan and Cloverhill.
Dundalk
Brian Crombie has been crowned IJM Golfer of the Year for the third time in five years.
Having won previously the Club’s Order of Merit in 2021 and 2023, Crombie made it a hat-trick of wins this year when he posted a scoring average of 71.29 off a total of 499 for his seven counting rounds over the 10 Golfer of the Year competitions.
That gave him a two-shot winning margin over Conal Murdock and Brendan Rogers who finished on 501, with last year’s Golfer of the Year, Frank Byrne, a shot further back in fourth on 502, followed by John Paul Casey, Neal MacKell and Cormac Malone on 503.
The top four in each of the four handicap categories (Senior, Junior, Intermediate and Minor) will be invited to take part in the IJM Scratch Matchplay Finals which will take place over the weekend of September 20 and 21, with the semi-finals from 9am on the Saturday and finals from 10.30am on the Sunday. Unavailable qualifiers will be replaced by the next best-placed player in the standings.
Crombie shot a 73 nett in the final Golfer of the Year event, The Knights of Malta Cup, which was won by John McEneaney (25) with an excellent score of 67 nett.
His round included five pars at the second, fifth, sixth, 13th and 14th as he went out in 32 nett and came home in 35 nett for a gross score of 92. He took overall victory on countback from Conor Marron (20) whose 67 nett secured him the Division 3 honours.
The in-form Cormac Malone (12) won Division 1 with a 68 nett, while Robert Lynch (14) needed countback to edge out Sean Hession (14) in Division 2 after both shot 69 nett.
Niall Kearney won the final round of the Callaway Chrome Tour Open Series which was played in Dundalk last week. His first-round score of seven-under par proved decisive when the competition was shortened, after torrential rain on Wednesday morning forced the cancellation of the second round of the 36-hole event.
Ardee, Rockmount, Grange and Dooks will be returning to Dundalk on Friday September 26 for the semi-finals of the Flogas Irish Mixed Foursomes after last Saturday’s thrilling quarter-finals.
Tubbercurry, Belvoir Park, Rathfarnham and Gowran Park will be back for the semi-finals of the Irish Mixed Fourball on the same date, with the finals scheduled for Saturday September 27.
Hard luck to the managers, players and caddies of the Women’s Junior Cup team who were beaten in the All-Ireland semi-finals last Saturday after a thrilling quarter-final win over Galway the day before.
August 30/31 Knights of Malta Cup – Singles Stroke – GoY 10 – Overall: John McEneaney (25) 67. Division 1: Cormac Malone (12) 68, Niall McCaul (10) 69. Division 2: Robert Lynch (17) 69, Sean Hession (14) 69. Division 3: Conor Marron (20) 67, Paul Morgan (19) 68. Gross: Caolan Rafferty 70.
Mannan Castle
A busy couple of days in Mannan saw the GUI quarter-finals take place on a wet Saturday the week before last.
Our members played on the Sunday in challenging conditions, which showed in some of the scoring.
Our overall winner on Sunday was 22-handicapper Jason Donnelly with a superb score of 42 points. Jason played the par 3s very well, which is key in Mannan, returning 16 points for those six holes.
Paul McVeigh (9) won Division 1 with a score of 37 points. Three birdies on the back nine were just enough for Paul to win by one shot. The runner-up was three-handicapper Shane Corr with 36 points.
Division 2 was won by Luke McGeown with a score of 36 points. Luke, who plays off 12, shot 18 points on his back nine to win on the countback. Stephen Aherne (14) finished in second place with 36 points.
Joe Quigley, who plays off 22, won Division 3 with a brilliant score of 41 points. Joe played in probably the most difficult conditions, having to battle the wind and rain on the Sunday afternoon. The runner-up was 18-handicapper Val Donaghue with 35 points.
Division 4 was won by Daniel Kingham (26) with a score of 37 points. A strong finish from Daniel was enough to win by one shot from 24-handicapper Tommy Hoey (36pts).
The Men’s Singles Matchplay Final was between James Hand and Eamon Ned Murphy.
James got off to a flyer in the worst of the wind and rain, going 4 up through the first four holes. A tap-in par after a deft chip on the 3rd was followed by a highlight chip-in birdie on the 4th to pile on the pressure early. The pair traded blows as the weather settled, and Eamonn got up to pace with the match, eventually winning the 6th, 8th and 9th to finish the front nine with James only 1 up.
A great up and down for par on the 10th put James back to 2 up before Eamonn took the 11th to claw the deficit back to one hole.
A three for James on the 12th, followed by a half, ensured he maintained the two-hole lead as the men crossed the road.
A par on the 14th for Eamonn, followed by a win on the 15th, brought the match all square for the first time since it began. As the rain bucketed down, Eamonn took the 16th and 17th to win the match and the singles matchplay title for 2025.
Congratulations to Eamonn, who also won the Doubles Matchplay with his partner Jason Hughes only a week previously.
The Mannan Castle Seniors had a tremendous day’s golf on the occasion of Senior Captain Graeme Woodcock’s Prize day.
Sixty senior golfers did battle for the honour of winning the top award and it was fiercely contested.
At the end of the day the final tally showed that Sean Harvey (23) was the clear winner with a magnificent 28 points for the 10 holes. He recorded four pars and a birdie and his card contained two four-point and five three-point holes.
The battle for the minor placings couldn’t have been closer as three players finished with 23 points.
Timmy Kelly (34) edged out Liam Morrissey (14) and Dick Bourke (13) on countback to take second place, Liam took third and Dick won Category 1.
Joe Mullen (23) took Category 2 with 21 points and Bernard Crawley (33) was the winner of Category 3 with 22 points.
The past captains prize went to Jimmy McMahon, nearest the pin was Paul Finn and Con Hanneffy had the longest drive.
During the presentation Senior Captain Graeme thanked everyone for their support during his time as captain and looked forward to the continued success of the seniors club.
Our Open Club Classic Champagne Scramble takes place over three days from September 26 to 28 and a reminder to everyone to book a tee time. All funds raised from this Open competition will go back into the course.
We are still looking for a few tee box sponsors, so if you would like to sponsor a tee box please contact the clubhouse or a committee member. Call 042-9663308.
Mannan Ladies
The course got a good soaking before last week’s competition, but the brave souls who took to the fairways weren’t hampered by the rain and the course held up.
A big thanks to our greenkeeping staff and volunteers who have done amazing work on drainage.
Playing red or yellow tees, it makes no difference to Marie Finnegan who made it two wins in two weeks. Choosing yellow last week, 14-handicapper Marie capitalised on the back nine, winning the section with 38 points.
Playing off the red, Marie McKeown (26) had nine three-pointers on the back nine alone to complete the Division 2 winning total of 41 points.
Congratulations to the winners and many thanks to last week’s kind sponsor GoLo Insurance Brokers, Main Street, Carrickmacross.
Seapoint
Results from the ladies club’s open two-person team competition played last Sunday week were as follows: 1st Pat Brannigan (10) & Stephen Tuite (14) 41pts; 2nd Eamonn Campbell (13) and Roger Connor (18) 40pts ocb; 3rd Noel Stewart (17) & Tony Doyle (12) 40pts; Longest drive Matthew Fee.
Seapoint Ladies
Sunday’s Main Hamper 18-hole strokes competition was won by 26-handicapper Ruth Lonergan, the lady vice captain, with a score of 71 nett.
Mary Carr, who plays off 18, won Saturday’s nine-hole stableford with 19 points.
The winner of last Thursday’s 18-hole stableford competition waas 35-handicapper Sandra Kierans with 40 points.
In the nine-hole competition the results were as follows: Cat 1 winner Bernie Kearney (11) 18pts; Cat 2 winner Anne Loughnane (24) 26pts, 2nd Eithne McCole (23) 19pts.
C ongratulations to the winners and well done to everyone who entered the competitions.
In the Ladies club’s open two-person team competition played last Sunday week, Linda McAuley had the longest drive and nearest the pin was Marita Moore.
Well done to everyone who participated.
