Mourne Golf Club News

11/05/2022

Mourne Golf Club’s Open Week has reached the midpoint with golfers from all over the province arriving in Newcastle to compete on both the Championship Links and Annesley Links at Royal County Down.

Mourne Open Week has always been a key date in the golfing diary as members and visitors enjoy competition and craic in equal measure.

The week kicked off last Sunday with a members’ four-man team classic. There was some hot scoring on one of the best days of the year so far. The winning team of Michael O’Higgins, Sean McKibbin, Eugene Rooney, and Paul Doherty took the spoils with a

great score of 92 points. That was enough to win by one from Paul O’Kane, Henry, Doran, Sean Ferguson, and John Murray in second. Noel Crawford, Matthew Davey, Frank O’Donoghue, and Hugh B Smyth secured third on 89 points.

The Blue Riband event of Open Week, the McKeown Cup, takes place on Thursday, before the final day on Friday when the prizegiving will also take place at the conclusion of play.

On the team front, the Jimmy Bruen Shield had a resounding victory over Cavan 4-1 to advance to the next round where they will play Nuremore.

Sean O’Higgins paired up with Daniel Brogan, while Oliver Brogan was partnered with Gerry Vaughan for the away ties. O’Higgins and Brogan put up a strong fight but lost at the 16th. Brogan (Oliver) and Vaughan had a roller coaster match, plus the pressure of competing in front of away support, but they battled hard and won the last two holes for a much-needed away win.

At home, captain Barry Hillen lined out alongside Eugene Valentine in a match of high quality. Nip and tuck all the way, it was left to Valentine to hole a clutch par putt on 18 to seal the one-hole win.

In the second match Ryan Brannigan and Jack Keenan stormed the front nine to go four up. However, Cavan fought back, and the match went the distance before the Mourne pair sealed the win on the 18th.

In the final match, Brendan Brown and John Murray made a strong start to be three up at the turn, and though they were pegged back at one stage, they closed the match out on the 17th to win 2/1.

Paul Murray and Kieron Polly’s Sam Rutherford team played their away leg first against Edenmore and are 11 holes down with a fighting chance to turn the deficit around in the home tie on May 22.

Kevin Murray and John Murray finished five down at Edenmore, Barry Hillen and Danny Savage were one down, Gerry Vaughan and Terry O’Toole were five down, while Marc Stevenson and Paul Mullan were all-square.

-ENDS