THE Munster Stroke Play Championship takes place in just over two weeks, and a top-class field of golfers will do battle in Cork Golf Club over Saturday and Sunday.
The cut for the event, where the famous Cork Scratch Cup is awarded fell at +2 highlighting the depth of the field.
After including a matchplay element last year to mark the 100th anniversary of the Cork Scratch Cup, the format returns to the one of recent years, with four rounds of stroke play.
The 75 who made the cut include West of Ireland winner Keith Egan who leads the challenge from outside Cork.
Holder Jason Law from East Cork leads the local challenge. Law was a surprise winner last year but qualified from the 36-hole opening day and went on to win four matchplay rounds to add his name to the famous trophy.
Two-time winner Peter O’Keeffe will be hoping the rekindle the form that saw him win in 2020 and 2021.
In all there are close to 20 Cork golfers in action. David Howard from Fota Island will be looking to build on his positive start to the year at the West of Ireland
Cork have plenty of golfers in the field including Ian O’Rourke, Joe O’Sullivan, Gary O’Flaherty and Morgan Cain. Cain returns to Cork after completing a very successful freshman year in Tusculum University.
Jake Whelan is the only other previous winner to enter, the 2022 winner won the last time it was played as a stroke play event. Castleknock’s Paul Coughlan and Quentin Carew also feature in the Bridgestone Order of Merit event.
The first scratch cup of the year will tee off on Saturday morning in Lee Valley where over 80 golfers will play 36 holes.
The BoyleSports Scratch Cup has attracted a large number of golfers from outside Cork with Walker Cup player Caolan Rafferty and former winner Tiernan McLarnon in the field.
The top 24 after Saturday’s 36 holes will go through to Sunday’s final round.
The 2024 inter-club matches have started, despite the wet ground conditions several matches were played over the weekend. Berehaven won their Pierce Purcell match against near neighbours Glengarriff, Kevin O’Neill, Kevin Mullins, Phillip O'Driscoll, Johnny Murphy, Dean Murphy (team manager), Daniel Hanley, Lee Kelly and Gary O’Shea featuring for the winners.
Closer to the city, Muskerry beat Lee Valley in another local derby. Muskerry’s Fred Daly team were also in action, James O’Sullivan, Shane Maker, Dylan Donovan, Sean O’Sullivan and Wanna Lynch had a good win over Blarney on Sunday.
Monkstown also racked up two wins, their Revive Active team had a win over Raffeen while their Fred Daly team got the better of Kinsale. Blarney had a win over Bandon in the Fred Perry.
Cork Golf Club had a win over Mallow in the Boys Foursomes.
Kanturk’s Mairead Martin continued her good form when she was runner up at the Lahinch Scratch Cup over the weekend. Martin had won the first scratch cup of the year when she finished on top at the Pinergy Woodbrook Scratch Cup a few weeks ago.
The women’s schedule continues this week as the Carlow Women’s Scratch Cup takes place over two days on 20 and 21 of April followed by the Cork Scratch Cup on April 27.
Mairead is in action in Scotland this week, she’s one of a few Cork golfers competing in the Helen Holm which takes place on the Portland course in Royan Troon. Clodagh Coughlan and Emma O’Driscoll are also in action.
Golf clubs are reminded that applications remain open for 2024 Golf4All Grants. Clubs are invited to apply for grant support between €1,000 and €2,000 to accelerate inclusive participation programmes.
The deadline to apply is April 28 and full details are available from Golf Ireland.
RETURN
John Murphy is back in Challenge Tour action today, in the first of two events in Abu Dhabi. He tees it up in the Al Ain Golf Club today and he will be hoping that the
Murphy has had a frustrating start to the season, he missed out on four of the opening South African events as these were co-sanctioned, and in the three events he did compete in he missed the cut by narrow margins.
He will be looking forward to next month when the Challenge Tour moves to Spain and the start of the summer-long European leg.
This should give him plenty of opportunities to feature and build ranking points for the season-ending Rolex Road to Mallorca.
