Teacher bewareDarren Clarke hit a typical professional's chip-shot from off the 16th green and watched it check before coming to rest about two feet from the hole.
"Get inside that if you can," he said with a grin to Leona Maguire. She readily obliged, by holing a 30-foot running shot with an eight-iron for a birdie on the toughest hole on the course.
This was among the fascinating moments during the Darren Clarke Foundation weekend at Moyvalley, where the cream of young Irish golfers had the honour of becoming the first official competitors. Which meant that with a three-under-par 69 on Sunday, 15-year-old Ilraith Keane from Malahide GC set the course record.
The remarkable, 11-year-old Maguire twins from Castle Hume GC, dominated the girls' section, in which Lisa took the top prize with rounds of 77 and 75, while her sister Leona was second, three strokes behind.
A total of 24 players took part over the two days in which Clarke took them through all the key technical elements of the game while offering advice on course management.
"There are some terrific players among them," enthused the course designer. "I can't get over how high the standard has become, as a result of the various coaching programmes which are now in place. The future for Irish golf looks very bright."
Results: Girls - 152 Lisa Maguire (Castle Hume) 77, 75; 156 - Leona Maguire (Castle Hume) 78, 78; 159 - L Simpson (Massereene) 83, 76; S Faller (Galway) 81,78. Boys: Under-15 - 142 - I Keane (Malahide) 73, 69; 145 - L Lennox (Moyola Park) 72, 73; 150 - R McGee (City of Derry) 76, 74. Under-18: 144 - S Lowry (Esker Hills) 72, 72; 149 - S Healy (Claremorris) 78, 71; 150 - S Dogham (Malone) 73, 77.
Tankards head north
There was a distinct northern influence at the All-Ireland finals of the Nike PGA Tankard competitions at Druids Glen last week. Winning professional was Donaghadee's Karl O'Donnell, who shot a two-under-par 69, while Janet Wilson, who plays out of Royal Belfast off an 11 handicap, took the women's prize on 35 points.
Best man in the amateur section was Deer Park 17-handicapper Eddie Lowe with 35 points, but the northern influence was carried on in the team event. The amateurs, partnering Headfort professional Brendan McGovern, were Norman Flanagan (Carnalea), who plays off 17, and Shandon Park's Gillian Harron (27), and they won with a score of 46 points.
O'Donnell started with eight straight pars before making a bogey five at the ninth, and then hit birdies at the 11th, 12th, 15th and 16th in a back-nine of 33.
GOLFnet charity finals
The final of the GOLFnet Charity Challenge, sponsored by Bulmers, took place last week at Carton House Golf Club (Montgomerie Course). The Charity Challenge is an official Golfing Union of Ireland event, and as such, members of all golf clubs affiliated to the GUI were eligible to participate, opening the competition up to over 170,000 players.
The Bulmers GOLFnet Charity Challenge ranked players in four categories with qualifying rounds taking place from June 1st to September 30th. Based on their top three scores in qualifying singles competitions (both home and away) during that period, the top-12 players in each category qualified to play in the National Final.
The winners from Carton House were: Category 1 (up to five handicap): Andrew Carroll (Castlewarden) 33 pts, Donal Hogan (Killeen) 33, John Bodkin (Tuam) 31.
Category 2 (handicap 6-12): Ciarán Tighe (Castlewarden) 34 pts, Emmanuel Bourdin (Hazel Grove) 32, David O'Connor (Hollywood Lakes) 31.
Category 3 (handicap 13-20): Noel Cunningham (Loughrea) 41 pts, Damian McGrath (Hazel Grove) 35, Val Donnellan (East Clare) 35.
Category 4 (handicap 21-28): Seán Kelleher (Foxrock) 33 pts, Ray Reilly (Curra West) 32, Pat Walshe (Curragh) 29.
Walshe first in California
Alison Walshe helped the Arizona University women's team to a second place finish at the Stanford Invitational on Sunday. The Wildcats finished five strokes behind Vanderbilt, who claimed the title with a total of 855.
Walshe tied for first with Arkansas' Stacy Lewis, which was Walshe's second first-place finish this season, after carding a total of six-under 207. Walshe had rounds of 67, 71 and a final round of 69 that included four birdies.
Meanwhile, Tara and Karen Delaney had top-40 finishes as Kent State University finished in 10th place at the Mercedes-Benz Championship in Cherokee Country Club, Knoxville, Tennessee.
Tennessee, with a total of 887, tied for first place with Georgia, while Kent State finished on 912.
Jenny Suh from Alabama won the individual honours with a one-over-par total of 214 from Lucy Jones (SMU) on 216. Karen Delaney finished tied for 33 place after round of 77, 73 and 79 while Tara was back on 230 after rounds of 75, 77 and 78.
Harry breaks turkey duck
Christmas celebrations started early at Milltown GC last week when Harry Counihan claimed his first turkey after many years at the south Dublin club. Counihan, who celebrated his 84 birthday this year, had never won a turkey despite many efforts throughout his years at Milltown. However, last Wednesday it all came good for the 19-handicapper when his 19 points for the nine-hole competition was enough to edge out John Bouchier Hayes on the last six holes.
Plan for Donegal classic
Wondering whether you should visit Donegal next year as part of your golfing tour? Well if so, entries are now being accepted for the Donegal Links Classic 2007. This very popular event brings teams from around Europe to the North West each May to compete over three Links courses. Entries are being accepted this year by Rosapenna Golf Club and anyone seeking further information should make contact with either Hilary or Frank on 074 91 55301.
Captain in the prizes
Donabate's Deirdre Bradshaw was always going to remember 2006, as it was the year she was Lady Captain of the north Dublin club. Although she has been exceptionally busy throughout the year, it hasn't unduly affected her golf. She has continued to feature regularly in the prizes.
And she was there once again last week, with yet another superb score and another victory. Playing in the Past Lady Captains event, the eight-handicapper fired a superb score of 71 to be a comfortable winner. Rose O'Flaherty was her nearest challenger, as she won Class Two with a nett 75, playing off 25.
The other class winners on the day were Fionnuala Forde (13) in Class One with a score of 76 and Imelda Walsh (33) in Class Three with 79. The Gross winner on the day was Lesley Costello with 86.
Caulfield owns Ashbourne
Helen Caulfield has been enjoying a good run in the Christmas prizes at Ashbourne. Only the weekend before last she enjoyed back-to-back victories.
On the Saturday, playing off 16, she fired a fantastic 39 points to win the singles event by five points.
Her nearest challenger was Bernie Dwyer (35) with 34 points.
That score cost Caulfield a shot, but it didn't stop her one bit as 24 hours later she came back and, now playing off 15, she won yet again in the Hamper competition. This time she had 35 points, beating Kathleen Gleeson (20) on a countback.
Perhaps it should have been no surprise that Caulfield would end up as a winner, as at the start of the month she had finished second in the Hamper event, having fired 36 points to finish just a point adrift of winner Kathleen Lonergan (14).
And in a strange twist last Sunday, there was another Caulfield winner on the same day, in the men's winter League, as the best score was recorded by Des Caulfield - no relation to Helen - who, playing off 17, won class two with 41 points. The other class winners were Derek Conway (12) and Tom Hudson (21) each with 40 points.
Payne done with Scotland
How about this for an achievement from Scotland: local man Ernie Payne, a 60-year-old grandfather, is claiming to have played every single course in the country.
There are 578 courses there, and over the last 15 years, he has played every single one of them. He finished his trek only last week when he played at Kingsbarns. An 11-handicapper from Cochrane Castle, Payne has been playing the courses since 1991.
And he rated Loch Lomond as his favourite course, followed by Muirfield, The Old Course at St Andrews, Cochrane Castle and Royal Troon, while he considered the one on the Isle of Coll as the most difficult - probably because when he played it hadn't been used for a year.
In 2004, he played 96 of the courses, while his attempt to play them all was made more difficult as new courses were built.
During his 15-year tour he has had three holes-in-one and travelled 28,000 miles, playing 8,920 holes, hitting 2,274 shots and losing 350 balls.
Owens best of alliance
The Leinster Ladies Alliance season teed off last week at Royal Dublin and provided some excellent scoring. And winning over the difficult north Dublin course was Malahide's Lilly Owens with 36 points, one better than Ita Donnelly from County Louth, while the gross winner was Gertie McMullen from The Island with 30 points.
skeenan@irish-times.ie
