Short Game

A round-up of today's other stories in brief

Top-class field battle for girls' crown at Waterford

A NEW Irish Girls champion will be crowned this week when the Irish Girls’ Close Championship takes place at Waterford GC, starting tomorrow.

The title is sure to be fiercely contested as the field boasts four of the six Irish Internationals who competed at the European Girls Team Championships in Germany, namely Jessica Carty (Holywood), Olivia Mehaffey (Royal County Down Ladies), Chloe Ryan (Castletroy) and Jean O’Driscoll (Muskerry).

Jessica Ross (Clandeboye), last year’s runner-up, is showing great form of late, having won the East Leinster Girls Championship at Powerscourt, defeating Mehaffey in the final.

She also finished runner-up to Ariana Coyle Diez (Elm Park) in the Ulster Girls, which was staged at Moyola Park.

An additional incentive for the competing field will be the announcement on Friday of the eight-player Irish Girls International team which will be competing in the Girls Home Internationals at Radyr Golf Club in Wales on August 7th-9th.

This team will be captained and managed for a second year by Niamh Kitching (Limerick GC) and Paula Reynolds (Seapoint).

Founded in 1912, Waterford GC celebrates its centenary this year and the parkland course, measuring 5,745 yards in length, will pose a stern challenge.

Bridge to a novel week in Spain

GOLFERS who play bridge or bridge players who play golf will all be welcome at the Precise El Rompido Hotel and Golf Resort from September 23rd.

Lorraine Cunningham Travel and professional bridge player Peter Pigot have joined forces to offer a seven-nights trip to Spain with golf and bridge included. Five bridge tournaments and coaching from Pigot with three or four rounds of golf, a gala dinner and prizes are offered for €659 (flights not included). Contact Lorraine at 0862473737 or lorraine@lct.ie

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ROSS MOHAN from Royal Dublin won the Leinster Boys under-15 Championship at Beaverstown last week when he fired a level par 72 to beat Seán Doyle from Athlone on a countback.

Third was Marc Bouchier from Carton House on 73, with Mark Rea from Donagahadee next on 74. Peter Cummins from Lurgan won the under-14 with a 74, while the under-13 award went to Alan Hill from Roscommon with 81.

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ENTRIES are now being accepted for the City Matchplay Open Championship at the Castle GC.

Open to men with a handicap of 18-or-under and women with a handicap of 28-or-under, the cost is €50 to cover competition fee and green fees for the event. The first round will be played in August at the Castle. Details 01-4904207 or info@castlegc.ie

Morans claim crown at the Castle

IT was drama all the way as the Key Capital-sponsored All-Ireland Father and Son foursomes final went to a tie hole at the Castle on Sunday, with victory going to the home pair of Gerry and Robert Moran.

Tom and Garreth Whelan from Baltinglass, who had come back from three down in their semi-final, found themselves three down with three holes to play against the Morans in the final. Displaying great fighting spirit they forced the match up the 19th, where the Morans finally prevailed. In the all-Castle semi-final the Morans beat Donal and Paul Coleman on the 17th green. Paul Coleman made the Morans sweat, however, when he almost holed out from 80 yards on the 17th.

The second semi-final went the distance when the Whelans came back from three down to pip Brendan and Andrew May of Corballis Links on the 18th green.

Open a big boost for links courses

IRELAND’S links golf courses are reporting an increase in green fee revenue for the first half of the year – and the trend looks set to continue according to John Quigley, the chairman of the Irish Links Initiative (ILI), the organisation set up in 2008 by a number of links courses to “protect, preserve and promote” links golf in Ireland.

Quigley, who is also the general manager of Portmarnock GC, says that informal research carried out with a representative sample of links courses north and south sees green fees revenue up by between 10 and 15 per cent on the same period last year. He said member clubs put the increase down to a number of factors, not least being the selection of Portrush for this year’s Irish Open. “This has had a major impact way beyond these shores as it once again highlights the fantastic asset Ireland has in its links courses”.

“Undoubtedly the return of the Irish Open to a great links course has been a major factor.

“It has also been interesting to see the amount of publicity this has generated, particularly in relation to the British Open, with many suggesting that playing both the Irish Open and the Scottish Open on links courses is the perfect preparation for the Open.”

Moran delivers on his firm promise

K CLUB members Jim Kirwan and Tony Moran have played golf together each Monday and Wednesday for the past 15 years. And on one such outing Moran said to Kirwan: “if you ever become captain I’ll win your captain’s prize.”

Well 80-year-old Kirwan was elected to the office of captain last January and on Saturday last – true to his word – good friend Moran, who is 81 years of age, kept his word and won the captain’s prize with an excellent score of 39 points off a 28 handicap. Moran won by a point from former Kildare GAA great Pat Mangan.

Gavin Moynihan from The Island, the current Irish Amateur Open champion, leads a strong Leinster Boys side in the Interprovincial at Royal Co Down GC in two weeks’ time. The Island is well represented with Moynihan, Niall Foley and Paul McBride included.

LEINSTER: Evan Farrell (Ardee), Niall Foley (The Island), David Foy (Laytown Bettystown), Paul McBride (The Island), Gavin Moynihan (The Island), Alec Myles (Newlands), Jack Walsh (Castle).

Irish senior ladies bound for Lugano

THE Irish senior team to compete in the 2012 European Senior Ladies Team Championship in Golf Club Lugano in Switzerland from September 4th to 8th, has been selected.

This year’s event will see two rounds of 18 holes strokeplay on the opening two days with the lowest five scores from six players to count each day. The aggregate of the five lowest scores from each day will determine the seeding for the matchplay draw.

IRELAND: Suzanne Corcoran (Portumna), Pat Doran (Donabate), Helen Jones (Strabane), Violet McBride (Belvoir Park), Sheena McElroy (Grange) and Carol Wickham (Laytown Bettystown). Dun Laoghaire’s Terry Sexton is team manager.