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LAST Sunday saw the Deerpark team of Damien Fleming, Sean Kelly, Mary Murphy and Fiona O’Donnell take part in the PJ Bell competition in Inniscarra, Co Cork. Taking part in this Foursomes Stableford format for the first time, the team finished on 139 points, a total of 26 points behind the winning team from the host club. The first 18 holes for both pairings saw a total of 39 points for Damien and Fiona followed by 37 points for Sean and Mary but it was the final two rounds where their challenge fell away as the wind picked up on the Cork course with Sean and Fiona bringing in 32 points with Damien & Mary scoring 31 points to give them that final total of 139 points.
Last week we had the National Matchplay Qualifiers in Tralee and the four players to join Damien as the defending champion in Claycastle in Youghal on the June Bank Holiday weekend are Tralee’s Jonathon Goodall, Gavin Carroll and Jason O’Regan along with Damien’s club-mate in Deerpark Ger O’Connor. O’Regan’s advancement came courtesy of a gripping 38 hole contest with Tony Blake that was decided at second playoff hole. There was also some good success for some Deerpark players in recent outside events. Paudie Looney was the winner of the Collins Junior Scratch Cup in Cork on the May Bank Holiday Monday while he combined with Hugh O’Sullivan and John Clifton in winning a prize at the Three Ball Scramble in the same Cork course. Last Sunday meanwhile saw Daragh O’Keeffe come second in the Intermediate section of the Hillview Scratch Cup in Clonmel, Co Tipperary.
This weekend it is the first major singles championship of the year in the form of the Munster Matchplay Finals at Tipperary Hills in Tipperary town. We have a total of 11 players in the three Gents Grades with the Senior challenge led by Damien Fleming and Jonathon Goodall along with Deerpark’s John McGrath and John Paul Fletton from Tralee. We are guaranteed one quarter-finalist in the Intermediate competition as Deerpark’s Johnny O’Brien and Castleisland’s Aidan O’Connor have been drawn against each other in the opening round. Tralee’s Declan O’Connell looks to follow on form his victory in the Junior competition last year in this section and he is joined by club-mate Michael Conway. In the Junior section, Deerpark’s Jason O’Connor makes his second appearance in this competition in three years and he is joined in this grade by club-mate Aidan O’Keeffe and Tralee’s Aidan O’Sullivan.
