The Short Game ...

Hilary Society tees offThe 50th year of the Hilary Golf Society tees off at Laytown and Bettystown next Sunday and once again will be sponsored by Frank Keane, Motor Imports Limited. The society was founded 50 years ago by Michael Fitzpatrick, Joe Carr and the late Dr Gerry Owens, two past presidents of the Golf Union of Ireland and a past captain of the Royal & Ancient, to promote pre-season competition between low handicap amateurs and professionals.

The name comes from the legal profession and signifies the period which falls between Christmas and Easter. The outings are played on a number of links courses including Co Louth, Royal Dublin, Laytown and Bettystown, Sutton, the European Club, Portmarnock Links and Seapoint.

Members play each year for the prestigious Hilary Gold Medal - which goes to the player with the best four nett scores from the five outings. An added incentive in this winter's programme will be the new Hilary Silver Medal which has been presented to the society in memory of the late Niall O'Brien, a long-time member, who died last year. The medal will be presented to the best four gross scores out of five events.

Time sheet for Laytown and Bettystown is with Linda Sutcliffe at 086-8143000 or lindascutcliffe@joeduffymotors.ie or parbirdiegolf.com.

Norris named manager

The Ladies' Golf Union has named Fiona Norris (McKay) manager of the team to compete for the Vagliano Trophy at County Louth Golf Club on July 25th-26th. For many years Norris (31) was a regular competitor on the Scottish women's amateur circuit and early in her golfing career twice finished runner-up in the Scottish Girls' Championship. She was twice Lanarkshire Ladies' champion and was rewarded with three Scottish caps in the Home Internationals, mirroring the three she had earlier been awarded at junior level.

More recently, she captained the Scottish under-21 and under-18 teams. She lives in Uddingston with her husband Patrick and two young children - a good reason for her not playing as much golf as she would like at her home club of Turnberry where she has been a member since childhood.

In December, Ireland's Ada O'Sullivan was named captain of the teams for the Vagliano Trophy and also the Curtis Cup in 2004 at Formby.

Amateur date change

Irish players won't have to choose between the East of Ireland Championship at Baltray and the British Amateur Championship from 2006. In previous years, Ireland's top amateurs have had to make the difficult choice of supporting the home event or the British Amateur.

However, the British Amateur will move from its traditional early June date in 2006 in an attempt to strengthen the entry. Moving back two weeks to June 19th-24th will also avoid a clash of dates with the NCAA Championships in America which has prevented top collegiate players in the United States, such as North of Ireland champion Gareth Maybin taking part in the event.

The venue for the 2006 championship will be Royal St George's, where this year's British Open will be played in July. The next door course at Prince's will jointly host the 36-hole strokeplay qualifying and the top 64 players and ties will go forward to the matchplay stage at Royal St George's.

The Boys' Home Internationals, being played from August 8th-10th in 2006, will be Moray Golf Club's first R&A event although it has a long history of major tournaments. Most recently these include the Home Internationals in 1996 and the Scottish Open Amateur Strokeplay Championship two years later.

Following the Boys' Home Internationals, competitors journey further east along the coast to the historic links of Royal Aberdeen where the British Boys' Amateur Championship will be played from August 14th-19th for only the second time since 1935.

The final venue to be announced by the R&A for 2006 is Southport & Ainsdale, which will stage the British Mid-Amateur Championship from August 16th-20th. The course is regularly used for final qualifying when the British Open is staged at Birkdale.

Pitch and putt trials

Trials to select the Irish pitch and putt teams for the European Championships will be held at Lakeside (Templemore) on June 14th and at McDonagh (Curragh), the European Championship venue, on June 28th. Each trial will be over 54 holes and the four players with the best aggregate 108-hole scores will represent Ireland at McDonagh on September 12th-14th.

The two remaining places on the six-man team will be selected as wild cards by the PPUI national executive.

The championship in September will see a third different format since the inception of the European tournament in 1999.

As eight countries - Ireland, Catalonia, Britain, France, Italy, Holland, Norway and San Marino - will be taking part, the format will be a 36-holes qualifying with the top qualifier playing the eighth placed team and so on in order. The losing team in the first round will continue to play to decide the final placings.

In last week's Short Game we credited Woodbrook as being winners of the Fitzgibbon Cup when in fact Elm Park beat Woodbrook in the final.