Short game

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

Gidali leapfrogs Maguire twins in Junior rankings

FRANCE’S Manon Gidali is the new leader of the PING Junior Solheim Cup Ranking.

The French girl lost by 5 and 4 to Sweden’s Madelene Sagström in the final of last week’s French International Lady Juniors’ Amateur Championship at St Cloud Golf Club but earned a total of 67.5 ranking points which was enough to leapfrog 16 year-old Irish twins, Lisa and Leona Maguire, and give her a slender lead at the top of the Ranking after the third of seven counting events.

The Maguire twins elected to compete in the concurrent Helen Holm Trophy in Scotland and Gidali took full advantage of their absence by qualifying in sixth place in the stroke play stages at St Cloud and then battling through to the final of the match play stages with victories over Switzerland’s Natalie Karcher, Finland’s Anne Hakula, England’s Haley Davis and Spain’s Rocio Sanchez.

Gidali goes into the fourth qualifying event – the European Girls’ Team Championship at Is Molas Golf, Sardinia on July 5th-9th – with a narrow six-point lead over Lisa Maguire, who started her qualification campaign with a victory over Spain’s Emilie Alonso at the Spanish International Ladies’ Amateur Championship at Sherry Golf, Jerez de la Frontera.

Leona, currently holds third place on the Ranking, ahead of Spain’s Rocio Sanchez, who earned 62.5 ranking points at St Cloud.

Huelva region to host pro-am finalists

FOR the third consecutive year, the PGA Irish Region and the Spanish Tourist Board are collaborating in an end-of-season event that will have five pro-am teams competing in the Huelva region of southern Spain.

Last year, the winning professionals and their amateurs from the Quinn Insurance Charity Trophy pro-am at Slieve Russell, the Philip Walton Dundrum House pro-am, the Ballyliffin pro-am, the McCambridge Duffy pro-am at City of Derry and the Lexus Race to Mount Juliet jetted off to Barcelona in October for the event at Golf d’Aro, Catalunya and Port Aventura.

The overall winner of last year’s event was Clonmel member Trevor Gough with his club colleague Brian McLean second and Killymoon professional Gary Chambers in third position. The courses to be played this year are Costa Esuri, El Rompido, and La Monacilla, courtesy of the Spanish Tourist Board in Ireland, the Andalucia Tourist Board and the Huelva Tourist Board. The qualifiers will be in Spain on October 23-25th. Andalucia has close to 200 golf courses and the Helva province has 11, most of which are on the Atlantic coast. The qualifying pro-ams this year are: Woodbrook on May 16th; Philip Walton Dundrum House on July 12th and 13th; Ballyliffin on July 24th and 25th; Cork on August 8th and Connemara on October 1st and 2nd.

Luttrellstown fund-raiser for Sligo

THE inaugural Sligo Rovers Dublin Golf Classic will take place on Thursday, May 19th, at Luttrellstown Castle.

The four-man team event is a shotgun start at 1.30pm, followed by a meal and prize giving.

The cost per team of four is €450, while individuals can play at a cost of €125. There are also sponsorship opportunities available as well.

All proceeds from this golf classic will go to Sligo Rovers in their quest for success this season, both at home and in Europe later in the summer when they will compete in the Europa League, and also to the club’s efforts to deliver quality youth programmes in the local community and continue the Showgrounds Development Programme.

Anyone interested in either playing or getting involved in any sort of sponsorship can contact Roddy Murphy on 087 2564917 or email at roddymurphy@gmail.com

Casey does it the hard way 

BRIAN CASEY from Headfort, won the Sigma Wireless -sponsored Leinster Youths Amateur Open Championship at Knightsbrook Golf Club.

Casey shot a final round three under par 69 to force a play-off against Shaun Carter from Stackstown/NUIM, who led by four going into the last round.

With scores level after the three-hole play-off, the players continued in ‘sudden death’, and Casey emerged victorious after a fine birdie three on the par four first hole.

Jack Pierse from the Grange had earlier shot a superb final round 68 but missed out by one, as did Simon Bryan (Delgany) who shot 69 in his third round.

Dowling delivers at Hermitage

A SUPERB second round of 73 saw Mary Dowling of New Ross claim victory in the 40th staging of the Hermitage Scratch Cup on Sunday.

Dowling has had a tremendous start to the 2011 season having already won the Royal County Down Ladies Scratch Salver in March and also been runner-up in the Woodbrook Scratch Cup last month.

Dowling made light of the windy conditions on Sunday and mastered the firm fast greens to win by six shots, after following her opening morning round of 78 with that tremendous level par round of 73 in the afternoon for a 36 hole total of 151.

Woodenbridge’s Louise Mernagh was runner-up on 157 after rounds of 80 and 77, edging out Donabate’s Pat Doran, who shot 79 and 78, and Karen Delaney of Carlow (79 and 78), with Woodbrook’s Sue Phillips fifth on 158, Jean O’Driscoll of Muskerry sixth on 159, followed by Helen Jones (Strabane) and last year’s winner Deirdre Smith (Co Louth).

First round leader Susie Hayes – who shot an opening round of gross 77 in the morning – was the nett winner with a score of 150, off a five handicap, after rounds of 72 and 78, three shots better than Wicklow’s Rosemary Kavanagh (9 handicap).

Hopkins runner-up in Lytham Trophy  

JEFF HOPKINS from Skerries tied for second place in the Lytham Trophy at Royal Lytham and St Annes over the weekend. Played in difficult conditions of strong winds, the Skerries man carded rounds of 74, 79, 74 and 77 for a four-round total of 304 – five shots off the winner Jack Senior from the Heysham GC.

Senior fired rounds of 71, 82, 72 and 74 to lead the field home on 299, with Julien Bruen from France (75, 77, 76, 76) and Tom Lewis from Welwyn Garden City (72, 75, 75, 82) sharing second place with Hopkins.

Andrew Hogan from Newlands was next best of the Irish in eighth place on 309 (75, 80, 76, 78).

The holder, Paul Cutler, the winners of the West of Ireland championship three days earlier, failed to reproduce that from and finished well down the field on 322 (75, 79, 82, 86).

Dermot McElroy, Reeve Whiston, Stephen Crowe, Paul Dunne, Alan Dunbar and Kevin Phelan all missed the cut.