Two Top 10 finishes but unfortunately no medals were the order of the weekend for Kerry players at the National Mens Strokeplay Championships in the Midlands last weekend as Tralee duo Jason Cregan and Tony Blake finished high up the leaderboard in both the Senior and Intermediate events in Tullamore.
Jason was fifth overall in the Senior Mens event on Sunday as both club-mate Stephen Conway and himself were joint seventh after the first 36 holes on 13 under par, four off the lead. As Jason shot seven under par for his last round to finish on 20 under was Stephen finished the tournament on -12. Jason just missed out on a Top 4 finish that would have guaranteed him automatic entry for next year’s event again after coming third last year as Cork’s John Cahill was the winner of the tournament on -26.
Defending champion Damien Fleming (Deerpark) along with Tralee’s Jason O’Regan just missed out on the cut for the Top 20 Final 18 as Saturday in Tullamore has seen Tony Blake in a share of second place in the Intermediate event after the first 36 holes. At five under par he was still seven shots behind the leader Louth’s Aaron McDonagh as despite Tony staying in contention for a medal for the most part he had to make do with a seventh place finish in the grade on three under par, 13 off McDonagh’s final winning score and two off the third place score on the day.
Over in Kilbeggan, Co Westmeath at the Junior event on Saturday no Kerry player made the Top 20 cut which stood at +7 as Deerpark’s David Harnett (+10) and Listowel’s Ethan Flannery (+12) came the closest to doing so. It’s over to the Women now this weekend for their National Strokeplay events as they head to Cunnigar in Dungarvan. We wish those from the county taking part the very best of luck.
Locally its busy within Kerry too this weekend with three Scratch Cups taking place. Two of them are in Listowel as Saturday sees their Mick Barry Memorial Scotch Foursomes event while Sunday sees them hosting their Kevin McCarron Memorial Singles event.
On Saturday too in Deerpark, the club hosts its U16 Scratch Cup event as the County Board encourages all players in the county to do their best to support these events this weekend.
