Short Game

A round-up of today's golf news stories in brief

Lockley to take up high performance post at ILGU

PETER LOCKLEY has been appointed high performance manager of the Irish Ladies Golf Union and will officially take up his position later this month.

Lockley, who has worked with the Belgium girl’s squad, is the head professional at Newark Golf Club and since 2007 has been lead county coach for Nottinghamshire.

He has a proven track record in the area of high performance and his strong work ethic and amicable personality have seen him achieve notable results with low amateur and professional players. He runs his own academy and has recently designed and delivered coaching schools for young children at the Lee Westwood Academy.

“This is a very exciting opportunity and with the ILGU achieving European success at junior level recently I am looking forward to establishing systems to build on that success,” said Lockley.

Chief executive Sinead Heraty commented: “We have high ambitions for our national teams, and to achieve our goals high performance needs a dedicated manager and I believe Peter’s experience will introduce programmes to ensure our coaches have a constant pipeline of talent at their disposal.”

Lockley will take up the high performance post in late October and will first meet the players and district coaches to devise a winter coaching programme ahead of next summer’s busy schedule.

Bradley gets better with age

TOM BRADLEY, a trustee and past captain of Grange Golf Club, had the wonderful experience of shooting his age, with an 80 gross, to win the recent Hamper singles with 41 points playing off a 17 handicap. Bradley noted the recent win by a Grange team of the Leinster Alliance Irish Times Shield, and recounted that he had featured on two previous teams to win this prestigious event. First, in 1951, playing with Howth GC, when the event was held at Grange, and later as a member of Royal Dublin in 1960. So little wonder “the Brad” can still knock it around.

THERE was a record-equalling start to the North Western Alliance season on Saturday at North West GC in Buncrana when Brian McElhinney equalled his course record of 64 to take the spoils in both the nett and gross categories.

The Team Ireland player shot a six-under par round to leave the rest of the field trailing as he equalled the record he set in October 2002.

In the nett Malachy MacLochlainn (5) from the host club was McElhinney’s closest challenger after a 68 to take runner’s-up spot on a countback from his clubmate Padhraic O’Rourke (14).

In the gross, Kieran Doherty (4) from Strabane was second with a 73, with two-handicapper Alan Doherty from Ballyliffin third on 74. Next up is a visit to Ballyliffin (Glashedy) on October 31st.

Phone plan offer worth a call

MEMBERS of the Golf Union of Ireland and Irish Ladies Golf Union can benefit from 3’s exclusive 25 per cent discount off their monthly phone plans of up to € 297 a year.

This is a great opportunity for members to benefit from the partnership with 3, who are significant sponsors of the Irish golf.

They have invested heavily in the development of the game here by securing the future of the Irish Open professional tournament, in addition to sponsoring this year’s Irish Open champion, Shane Lowry; the ever popular Irish Mixed Foursomes; the Intervarsity Championships, the Intervarsity Leagues and Irish Amateur Ladies Open.

To avail of the offer – 1800 944 039 or log on to www.3golf.ie to find out more.

Quote your ILGU or GUI membership number which is on the back of your handicap card to qualify for this offer and be included in a draw for a trip to the Dubai Desert Classic.

Kilcoole lift Boyne Trophy

KILCOOLE collected the first pennant for the club recently when the women’s team won the Boyne Trophy with a victory over the Curragh in the final at Edenderry.

In recent years they have been successful in getting to semi-finals and to two finals. However, this year, after reaching three more semi-finals they won the Boyne Trophy.

Kilcoole played the Grange, Rathfarnham, Charlesland and Slade Valley before a victory over Wicklow in the semi-final and finally over the Curragh to bring home the trophy. During the campaign, which started in May, there were 21 players involved with the team.

More space for Mid-Amateur

A NEW-looking links awaits competitors in the second Irish Mid-Amateur Tournament to be played at the European Club on Saturday, October 24th.

After staging five national championships in the past four years, producing Rory McIlroy and Pádraig Harrington as winners, Pat Ruddy has spent the past six weeks cutting back the rough to produce a much more St Andrews-like experience.

The Irish Mid-Amateur proved a big success last year with Pat Errity of the host club winning with a one-over-par 72.

It will be interesting to see how the 35-year-old and over brigade fare this year with so much more space to express themselves.

Also coming-up at the European Club is the third East of Ireland Matchplay. Entries are now open for an event which is modelled on the San Francisco City Championship and attracted over 250 entries in 2008.

There is no upper handicap limit for the Mid-Amateur championship, although higher handicaps will be balloted out in the event of the event being over-subscribed, but the matchplay limit is 18 for both men and women.

Entries for both events at 0404-47415

Galway claim fourth Diamond Trophy

GALWAY recorded their fourth win in the Newbridge Silverware-sponsored JB Carr Diamond Trophy when they beat Tullamore 3-2 in the final at Woodenbridge GC.

It was second time unlucky for Tullamore, as they were also runners-up last year when they lost out to Tralee.

They gained some revenge this year by beating Tralee in the semi-final, while Galway got the better of Ballymena in the second semi-final.

Tralee did finish third after beating Ballymena in the play-off.

Galway’s victory makes them the most successful team in the event’s history, just ahead of Charleville who won three on the trot from 2002-2004.

The members of the winning Galway team were Joe Corless, Michael Breen, Tom Glynn, Tom McCarthy, Mick Dowd, Ses Feeley, Marcus Conroy, Cyril Murray, Seán Hosty and Seán Morris.

The team was managed by Geoff Brennan.