25th September 2009: National Seniors Strokeplay Finals Preview


This weekend Tullamore Pitch & Putt Club plays proud hosts to the National Ladies and Gents Seniors Strokeplay Finals, the final national championships of 2009. It is a fitting tribute to Offaly Pitch and Putt and most of all to the Tullamore club who boast one of the top championship courses in the country. Theses championships have become very popular since their welcomed introduction in 2004 at Clare Road and are very competitive in nature as past national champions strive to relive past victories on the prestigious national stage. Home Offaly hopes will be high this weekend as we have four ladies and no less than eleven gents contending for titles in their respective grades.

The Ladies Championships tees off on Saturday September 26 with the Juniors at 9am, with all grades to be decided over 36 holes. In the Junior section twenty-four ladies will compete with one lone local Tullamore member taking part, Mary Connelly, the club's public relations officer. Mary tees off at 10.28am alongside Dora Kavanagh of Glenville. Mary will be competing in the same field as last year's runner-up Josephine Thorpe of Prosperous and 2006 runner-up Marie Brennan of Bellewstown. In the Ladies Inter section Tullamore's Mary Cuskelly and Alice Murphy and Ferbane's Ann Minogue make up the twenty-five strong field which includes last year's Seniors Inter runner-up 2008 (after a 9 hole playoff) and Seniors Junior winner of 2006, Veronica Clarke of Kilbeggan. The Senior's Inter grade also features two past National Inter Ladies Strokeplay winners from Kildare, Esther Martin of Ryston (2006) and the formidable Bernie Dunne of St. Bridget's (2000). The Inter section tees off at 12.15pm and is closely followed by the highly anticipated Ladies Senior section at 2.30pm. Unfortunately, Offaly has no representatives in this section but this will not deter spectators staying on to watch the high caliber of competitors on show. Amongst the favourites for this title is defending champion Sheelagh Elmes of Portmarnock, who is no stranger to the big stage recording numerous Inter-County caps for the Dublin Ladies team and only in recent weeks helped them to complete a Leinster and National Dublin in Newry. Sheelagh's role of honour also includes a National Ladies Matchplay title in 1983 and the National Ladies Strokeplay in 1995, and in 2009 was a beaten semi-finalist in the National Matchplay at Castletown. Sheelagh will prove to be hard beaten at Tullamore this weekend however, there are four past winners of this title competing once again; Mairead O'Toole of Poulaphouca (2007), Chris O'Shaughnessy of St. Anne's (2006), Ann Maloney of Shandon (2005) and Rose Kelly of Ryston (2004). All have proved their skills in past provincial and national events over the years and have all played important roles for their respective Inter-County teams successes. Three have also tasted past national glory. The rebel of the three and one of the most respected lady players of the game, Chris O'Shaughnessy won the National Ladies Strokeplay back in 1989, while the Kildare stalwarts Mairead and Rose have a National Ladies Inter Strokeplay title (2001) and National Ladies Matchplay title (1996) respectively. Amongst the rest of the pack Dublin's reigning Dublin Strokeplay winner Phil Condron of Lucan will surely be in the shake up come Saturday afternoon along with Kathleen Geraghty of Skyrne, Vera McCarthy of Collins, Jean Cooney of Cement and Stella Sheridan of Glenville.

Sunday brings together the top Senior Gents of the country. Following competitive qualifying rounds in recent weeks they have all deservedly booked their tee time at the finals on Sunday. The Junior section gets underway from 9am with two Offaly representatives from the Ferbane club competing. P.J. Dunne and long serving officer of Ferbane Ultan McCabe will be hoping to record the county's first Junior title of these championships. They are indeed equipped with the game to do so and will put up stiff competition to the defending champion Billy Gaffney of Riverdale and to 2005 runner-up John Clarke of Kilbeggan. The Inter section will follow the Juniors at 11am with no less than five Offaly players taking part including Erry's Larry Maher Snr., Mick Devery, Johnny Scully, Tullamore's Brendan Gorman and Ferbane's Tom Egan. All players have been in fine form this season and it would be a confident assumption to say that one if not more of these players takes a medal on Sunday afternoon. It will prove a tough task however in a strong field of twenty-four including defending champion Sean O'Brien of Templebreedy going for his third title in a row at this event. One would feel that local knowledge will surely play an important role in the winner's enclosure in all sections this weekend with some notorious holes on the back nine waiting to cause anguish and despair. So much is also true for the Senior section of the championships which gets underway at 1pm with the defending champion and a first time winner in 2006 Pat Greene of Seapoint leading the charge for the title once again. 2007 champion Frank Ryan of RGSC and runner-up Pat Desmond of ESB will also be in attendance with 2004 champion Martin Frawl of Clare Road and the 1985 National Matchplay champion Davy Poole of Portmarnock. 1996 National Strokeplay champion Liam O'Donovan (Douglas) will be leading the Munster charges as his form is peaking coming into the finals. In addition to the aforementioned favourites local hopes will be pinned on Tullamore's John Fleming, Ferbane's Patsy Reams and John Dunican and Erry's Billy Buckley Snr. all of whom are well established players and long serving supporters of the game. John, Billy and Patsy have all won coveted county championships and scratch cups and have represented Offaly at Inter-County level and will be hoping to add a National Seniors title to their name come Sunday afternoon. It is the final National Championships of the year and it will be a weekend certain to serve up a feast of pitch and putt so we hope encourage everyone to come along over the two days to support all our local players and hopefully toast local success.