3rd September 2009: All Roads Lead to Newry This Weekend.. & All the Latest News

All Roads Lead to Newry This Weekend - National Inter-County Championships 2009
The highly anticipated 2009 championships take place next weekend September 5th and 6th and make a return visit to the Cloghogue Pitch and Putt Club in Newry. This will be a record equaling fourth time that Cloghogue will hold this event, the only other course which has featured a similar number being Hillview. Offaly Gents finished third at the venue in 1992 and will be hoping to be in the shake up come Sunday afternoon as the Cork team go in search of record equaling seventh title in a row. The Offaly Gents team is lead by Larry Maher Jnr., who has become a formidable competitor and leader in the past few years playing inter-county. He will captain the team of Joe McGrath Jnr., Graham Newman, Anthony Galvin, Darren O'Connell and Mark Hogan on Sunday. The Offaly Gents will certainly be traveling with some extra confidence as they overcame near neighbours Westmeath in the annual Offaly v Westmeath challenge last Wednesday at Kilbeggan, on what was an extremely windy night. They won by 29 shots on this occasion which was contributed to in no small part by the remarkable performance by Joe McGrath Jnr. who shot 20 under par for 36 holes. This score included a second round of 13 under par! Graham Newman had an impressive score in the conditions shooting 13 under while Larry Maher closely followed with 11 under par, Anthony Galvin with 10 under par, Darren O'Connell with 6 under par and Mark Hogan on 4 under par. Well done to the Offaly team who retained the title for another year.
On Saturday the Offaly Ladies will tee off the championships with favorites for the title Dublin. The Offaly team will be lead by double national champion Tracey McGrath as they will be hoping to contest for a medal position. The team is composed of Ann-Marie McCabe, Linda Flanagan, Eileen Guerin, Ger Ryan and Ann Minogue. The Offaly Ladies will be hoping to improve on recent performances as they were beaten by just 3 shots by their Westmeath counter-parts on Wednesday last at the annual Offaly v Westmeath challenge. We wish both our teams who are managed by Una Pyke and James Walsh and who are kindly sponsored by Michael Egan, Clara Sports & Leisure Centre Clara, the very best of luck as they set off Friday to the National Championships.

For the Ladies & Gents Draw Sheets from the PPUI website click here »

For Score Updates on the 5th and 6th Sept go to the PPUI website click here »

Offaly Gents Inter-County Team - Winners of Offaly V Westmeath Challenge 2009

Offaly Juvenile Matchplay Finals 2009
Erry were the proud hosts to the Offaly Juvenile Matchplay Championship recently. It proved to be a highly competitive and exciting one day event in which 26 juveniles took part in, representing Ferbane, Tullamore and Erry clubs respectively. Following tough first and second round matches a number of favorites made it safely through to the quarter-final stage, where the competition really took fire. Amongst the quarter-finalists were a number of members of the recent Juvenile Offaly team that won the Leinster Final including Brian Doyle, Gary Pyke, Liam Huson, Dylan Melia and David Newman. In the quarter-finals Brian Doyle beat Gary Pyke 2/1, Colm Doyle beat Liam Huson 3/1, David Newman beat Dylan Melia 7/6 and Darren Fleming overcame Gary Fleming 2/1. In the semi-finals Brian Doyle overcame Colm Doyle but needed extra tie holes to do so, he won on the 40th hole. David Newman had a very good win over club mate Darren Fleming by 2 holes. So the stage was set and the contenders chosen through a set of 4 matches, two of Offaly's top juvenile players took to the first tee-box for battle as Brian Doyle took on rival David Newman. In a close match it was the local Erry player, David Newman, who took the honours winning by 2/1. David was a very deserved winner who is certainly following in the winning footsteps of his brother Graham who has burst onto the Senior adult stage this year. Congratulations to David and to Brian on a terrific final and to all the juveniles who took part and made it a very successful championship. Special tribute must go to the Erry committee and grounds keepers who had the course in perfect condition for the juveniles as always and also to Joe McGrath Jnr., Una Pyke and James Walsh for their continued hard work and mentoring of the juveniles.

Offaly Juvenile Matchplay 2009 Prizewinners

National Mixed Foursomes @ Erry
The qualifying stages for this year's National Mixed Foursomes took place in Erry last week in very windy and wet conditions. The following took the two qualifying spots from Offaly: Sean Robinson & Kathleen O'Loane (Ferbane) 9up and Joseph and Tracey McGrath (Erry) 8up. The finals take place at Deerpark Pitch and Putt Club, Killarney, Co. Kerry on September 20th.

Reports from the Leinster Mixed Foursomes & National Inter-County will follow next week.