Shay’s Short Game: On-fire Leona Maguire wins amateur gold

Leona Maguire on fire

Leona Maguire has won the European Ladies’ Amateur Golf Ranking’s gold medal for the second successive year. This constitutes her fourth medal after she was awarded silver in 2010 and 2011. Maguire has also defended her position as World Leading Women’s Amateur which gained her a second WAGR’s Mark H McCormack Medal.

The highlight of Maguire’s season was her performance in Rio during golf’s return to the Olympic Games. Having succeeded to qualify among only three amateurs, she placed tied 21st alongside her team mate Stephanie Meadow who finished 31st. Earlier in the season, Maguire played a substantial role in the Curtis Cup victory against the USA in June and won the Smyth Salver for leading amateur in the Ricoh Women’s British Open at Woburn. She also played in the US Women’s Open at CordeValle and reached the quarter-finals in the Ladies British Open Amateur Championship.

Most recently however, Maguire helped Ireland to a historical Bronze Medal at the World Amateur Team Championships - Espirito Santo. Maguire, alongside Olivia Mehaffey and Annabel Wilson were the first Irish team to medal the WATC. They were equalled one week later when the Irish Men’s Eisenhower Team also placed in Bronze for the first time in their history.

The Silver medal was won by Bronte Law (England). Law, who attends college in the US at UCLA, made history at the Curtis Cup in Dun Laoghaire in June when she became the first GB&I player to win all five of her matches. She also played a key role in England’s European Team Championship win in Iceland this year. The trio of medals is finished off with Spain’s Maria Parra Luque in Bronze position. The 2016 Portuguese Ladies Amateur Champion was part of the inaugural Patsy Hankins Trophy, reached the semi-final of the Ladies British Open Amateur Championship and was leading individual qualifier at the European Team Championships. Parra Luque ended her amateur career after the WATC in which she tied for 8th individually.

Ireland to face England on the Isle of Man

Ireland’s under-16s will play England at Castletown Links on the Isle of Man in an international match over two days from October 8th-9th.

Irish Boys Champion Mark Power is one of eight players included in the Ireland team, which will play their English counterparts in a series of foursomes, fourball and single matches.

Power is joined by Irish Under-16 champion John Brady as well as Jack Doherty, Sean Enright, Ian Halpin, Scott Jones, Luke O’Neill and Edward Walsh. The teams will play foursomes and four ball matches on the opening day with eight single matches to decide the outcome on the second day.

Irish Boys Selectors Alasdair Gibson (Knock) and Kevin Raftery (Forrest Little) will accompany the team.

IRELAND U16 (v England): John Brady (Rosslare), Jack Doherty (Carton House), Sean Enright (Limerick), Ian Halpin (Cahir Park), Scott Jones (Belvoir Park), Mark Power (Kilkenny), Luke O’Neill (Connemara), Edward Walsh (Mallow).

Rockmount edge out Newlands

It took three extra holes to decide the outcome of the ILGU Revive Active National Fourball Final at Old Conna Golf Club before Rockmount Golf Club from Belfast edged out Newlands 3-2.

With the sides level at two points apiece, the decider came down to the middle match and Rockmount’s Janet Douds and Deirdre Russell approached the 18th one down but won the hole to force Newlands down extra tie holes. The Ulster pairing dug deep and secured victory in dramatic fashion on the 21st hole after Russell holed the winning putt.

Seapoint to host medal final

The Final of the 2016 ILGU Junior Medal will be played at Seapoint Golf Club on Wednesday, November 2nd with a shot-gun start commencing at 11:00.

The top 60 junior girls in Ireland are eligible to qualify to compete in the final.

These consist of the top 50 (+ ties) returning the lowest aggregate of three nett scores (calculated as the nett differential between the CSS and the nett score) for any stroke or stableford rounds recorded on Golfnet (one per month in June, July and August) and the top 10 junior girls who have reduced their handicap by the most shots during the period of March 1st - August 31st.

The winner of the National Final at Seapoint will be presented with the ILGU Junior Gold Medal, with the silver medal awarded to the player with a playing handicap up to 20 and the bronze medal awarded to the player with a playing handicap of 21-36 inclusive.

England win Senior Women’s Home Internationals

England are the Senior Women’s Home Internationals title winners for the 10th time since the tournament started in 2003. They completed a 100 per cent winning week at Alyth Golf Club, Perthshire by beating Wales 5.5-2.5 to win the Sue Johnson Trophy for the third year in a row.

Ireland beat Scotland 6-2 in their final match. That meant that Ireland, Scotland and Wales finished with one point each. After a long involved three-stage countback, European champions Ireland were declared the runners-up with Wales third and Scotland last of four.

Ireland led Scotland 2-1 after the foursomes and then won the first four singles to finish to assure themselves of victory, if not by the 8-0 margin of last year’s match still a comfortable margin.

Senior British champion Laura Webb was back at something like her best in beating Scotland’s Alex Glennie by 6 and 5. Gertie McMullen was also back in form with a 5 and 4 win over Lorna McKinley, achieved with one-under-par figures, quite an achievement in the bright but very breezy conditions. Mary Sheehy won by 6 and 5 against Gillian Kyle. Sheena McElroy gained Ireland’s sixth point with a 4 and 3 win over Mary Smith.

12th for Kilkenny in European Cup

The Kilkenny Ladies Senior Cup team finished 12th in the European Cup Inter Club competition in Bulgaria won by Racing Club de France. The French side led from start to finish at Pravets Golf Club, to claim victory for the third consecutive time.

The ladies from RCF La Boulie finish 12 strokes ahead of the rest of the field with a total of 414. Second place was taken by Denmark’s Smorum Golf Club (426) one stroke ahead of France’s Paris Country Club (427).

The Kilkenny team of Mary Dowling, Orla Duinphy and Mary Browne finished on 469.

Maguire third in Annika Intercollegiate

Following a slow start in the opening round of the 2016-17 campaign, Duke University third-year student Leona Maguire turned in a combined 11-under-par over the next two days to finish tied third overall at the Annika Intercollegiate.

Maguire registered a 65 in the second round and then finished with a 68 in the final round on her way to finishing at nine-under-par, 207, at the Watson Course in Reunion, Florida. She finished just two shots off the individual leader, Maria Fassi of Arkansas (205).

“She’s striking the ball really well,” said Duke head coach Dan Brooks. “She said she struck the ball the first day as well as she did the whole tournament, it’s just the putts fell later and they didn’t fall in the first day. That’s the whole deal with her. Once they started dropping, if she could make putts that first day like she did later in the tournament, it would have been really, really special.”

Olivia Mehaffey (Arizona State) finished in 27th place on 216 after rounds of 73 71 and 72 with Lisa Maguire (Duke) shooting 78 74 76 for 228.

Bloom Cup for Ballinascorney

Ballinascorney Ladies clinched the Bloom Cup for the first time with a hard fought victory over Castle. Leading 2-1 from the first leg on their home course, Ballinascorney made the short trip to Rathfarnham, more in hope than expectation, and pulled off a marvellous win. On the day the points were shared, 1.5 each, but it was enough to herald a momentous day in the 45 year history of the club.