Mourne Golf Club News
May 13, 2024
By Paul Gallagher
The golf season is in full flow and the renowned Mourne Golf Club Open Week is underway with a fully booked schedule, while the club’s Senior Cowdy team were left with too much to do as they went down to local rivals Kilkeel.
Adrian O’Hare’s Senior Cowdy team played the first leg away to Kilkeel but in an exceptionally rare case the Mourne team came away with no points at all. At 28-0 (four points per match), there was an almighty hill to climb on the return home leg last Friday. Some might even have said and unsurmountable hill.
In any case, the seven Mourne men lined out against their seven Kilkeel opponents on a glorious evening at Royal County Down. The banter between teams was friendly and it was a case of nothing to lose for Mourne. The early stages were very promising with all seven Mourne men ahead. This was crucial because they had no margin to drop any points.
However, when Eoghan Simons went through the turn all-square, it meant a half point was lost and therefore the Lazarus-style comeback proved too much. As one of the Kilkeel players said afterwards; “I’m glad we managed that half point in the top match, for we were well behind in all the other matches, and who knows what might have happened on the back nine.”
In any case, Kilkeel were worthy winners and there is always a good sense of camaraderie between the two local clubs.
Mourne Open Week kicked off with the traditional Four-Man Classic for Mourne members last Sunday, and there was some fine team scoring. The quartet of Kieran Polly, Declan Burns, Mark Keane and Stevie Burns came out on top with 98 points to win the Motis sponsored Classic.
Kevin Flynn, Gerard Milligan, Michael Hazzard and Peter Toner were second with 97 points, while Brendan Brown, Michael Hawkins, Dermot Hawkins and Colm Kearney took third with 93 points.
Earlier this month, there was some excellent scoring in the May Medal Sponsored by The Donard Bar, none more so than Ryan Brannigan who came out on top with his sensational six-under nett score of 65.
Brannigan has tapped into a rich vein of form of late and was the model of consistency in his round, where the highlight came with birdie two at the 10th. Brannigan won the medal and took top spot in Division 1, but was pushed all the way by Declan Burns, who signed for a 66 to win Division 2, while Mark Guinness’ 69 was good enough to win Division 3.
Other notable returns included Eoghan Simons, Peter Murphy and Brian Gilleece, who also returned two under 69s. Stephen Barker took the gross prize with his round of 73.
As Open Week concludes this Friday with the eagerly anticipated Mourne Golf Club Pro-am, hosted by Royal County Down, there is still plenty of golf to be played between now and then.
As the team competitions ramp up, we also send best wishes to the Mourne Senior Cup team who travel to Clandeboye on Sunday to try and qualify for the knock-out stages and go one further than their semi-final run last year.
-ENDS
Mourne Golf Club Senior Cowdy Team that lost to Kilkeel GC
Caption: From left: Mourne GC Senior Cowdy team. Kieran O’Connor, Rory McNiff, Barry Hillen, Adrian O’Hare (team captain), Ryan Brannigan, Kieran Polly, Eoghan Simons and Marty Greene. Missing from photo Paul Gallagher.
(Photo: Danny Hillen)
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