Kerry return in search of elusive inter-county title

They're quite accustomed to All-Ireland titles - principally the Sam Maguire - winging its way down to Kerry, albeit at more irregular intervals these days than in times past, but the quest to garner golf's national equivalent has proven to be a rather elusive one.

This Saturday, the Golfsure All-Ireland Counties Championship finals take place at centenary-celebrating Carlow golf club and Kerry, last year's beaten finalists, will be back again in an attempt to go one better. Kerry, who beat Tipperary in the Munster final, take on Leinster champions Louth in one semi-final, while Ulster champions Derry face Connacht kingpins Roscommon in the other semi-final. The final is due to take place at 1.30 p.m.

If Gerard O'Sullivan is to be a part of the Kerry team, then he will have to go through the pain barrier. In what is generally a young side, O'Sullivan is considered the calming, experienced influence and, in fact, he was on a Kerry team beaten in the final in the late '70s by Down. However, O'Sullivan is struggling to overcome a knee injury and will have to have a cortisone injection if he is to play any part at all. "He's told me he won't be able to play 36 holes in the one day," admitted Kerry captain Michael Lawlor.

Ronan Walsh, who is a final year student at the University of Limerick and a member of last year's Munster youths' team, has been placed on stand-by to fill in for O'Sullivan should the need arise.

The Sugrue brothers, Dan and John, who are both scratch players, spearhead the Kerry challenge, but they're sure to face stiff competition from the opposition in their bid to gain compensation for last year's final reversal to Dublin. Their semi-final opponents, Louth, have shown themselves to be tough campaigners and in such as Brian Ronan and Frank Gannon have strong matchplay golfers.

Derry also have a strong leaning towards youth in their line-up with David Jones and Michael McGeady among the top young players in the game at the moment and they will probably start out as favourites against Roscommon in the other semi-final.

Louth haven't won the title since completing a hat-trick of victories in the championship back in 1985, while Roscommon's last success was delivered in 1992.

Meanwhile, Co Sligo's Sean McTernan gave a further hint of his vast potential when he was a runaway winner of the Munster Youths' Open by eight shots at Tramore last weekend.

McTernan was a member of the Irish team that won the European Boys' Team championship at Gullane in Scotland last year and, incidentally, that win has resulted in Ireland receiving an invitation to play in the World Junior Team Championship at the Asahi Kokusai Tojyo Club in Hyogo, Japan, on June 17th-20th next.

Not surprisingly, given his early-season form, McTernan has been selected on the four-man team but he is the only survivor from the Gullane win as Jones, Justin Kehoe, Robin Symes and Michael McDermott are all overage, while Mervyn Owens will be involved in Leaving Cert exams at that time.

The four-man team selected for Japan will comprise McTernan, Derek McNamara (Connemara), Gareth Maybin (Ballyclare) and James McCracken (Malone). Jimmy Greene will be the nonplaying captain and Barry Doyle is the manager.

An eight-strong Irish invasion force will compete in the Scottish women's amateur strokeplay championship for the Helen Holm Trophy at Royal Troon this weekend. Given that the travelling party was finalised prior to last week's Leinster Open, it was a touch prophetic that the ILGU managed to include all four semi-finalists from that championship in the raiding party.

Jenny Gannon, who went on to win her first major title in senior golf, Maura Morrin, Oonagh Purfield and Emma Dickson are all competing over the famed Scottish links and will be joined by Alison Coffey - who completed her warm-up by playing on the EGU side that lost to the European women professionals in Chester on Sunday - Sinead Keane, Tricia Mangan and Hazel Kavanagh. Coffey will be seeking to go one better than last year when she finished runner-up in the championship, but the strength of the Irish raiding party suggests they can at least make a similarly strong impression on this year's competition.

Over 350 players will tee off in the first Fingal Golf Classic next Monday. Played over St Margaret's, Portmarnock Links, Luttrellstown Castle and Hollywood Lakes, the inaugural competition has attracted a large entry with an extensive international flavour. Each team of two will compete in a fourball betterball stableford competition with prizes on offer at each course over the four days plus overall team and individual prizes.

Arklow went back to the future last week to mark the official opening of its refurbished clubhouse.

The two captains, Tom Graham from Dublin and Susan Byrne from Greystones, dressed up in the fashion of 1927 the year Arklow golf club was founded, to mark this milestone and their "drive in".

Close on £200,000 was spent on refurbishing the clubhouse which is the latest of a number of improvements carried out over recent years, including the installation of a sprinkler system for the links course and the creation of new 15th and 16th holes.

Gerry Casey showed the members the way home last weekend. The captain of Forrest Little golf club shot an eight under par 62 to spreadeagle the field in the singles competition. Casey's celebrations were joined by Brian Gleeson who holed in one at the seventh which also proved lucky for Tony Judd who also holed out his tee shot at the same hole on his way to qualifying for the Foursomes Matchplay on Sunday.