*Sinead Sexton.
SPANISH POINT’s Sinead Sexton is now a fully qualified professional golfer.
From the time as a young schoolgirl when she played her first game of golf, Sinead Sexton from Spanish Point was a natural for the game and her improvement was rapid and impressive as she achieved Irish International amateur status at a young age.
Also very skilled at gaelic football, her golfing prowess was quickly seen by Lahinch Golf Club and she was selected on their senior cup team, aged fifteen years, playing at number one on the teams that won Munster and All-Ireland titles over several years. She was their lowest handicap player at plus three.
In addition to playing for Ireland she has won many titles in different competitions, numerous scratch cups, and she was an outstanding member of the Stirling University ladies team, where she completed her degree.
Her teammates were either Scottish or English internationals and they swept all before them and Sinead is the holder of Ladies’ course records from several top clubs.
Having made the decision to become a professional golfer and allowing for Covid interruptions she spent three Winters working in Woodfield Country Club, Boca Raton, Florida, and a summer working at Doonbeg Golf Club, while using her knowledge of the game teaching young girls and other members of Spanish Point Golf Club.
All the while she kept up her studies of the written requirements and passed the various examinations usually at her first sitting, as the tests progressed to the final stage.
Returning to Woodfield Country Club last winter Sinead completed her final tests and received her LPGA Class A certification in May, which combined with her degree in Sports Management and all her golf experiences presents a promising career in her chosen profession.
She is currently working at a club called Mountain Ridge in New Jersey which she says is a really nice club, a very friendly membership and the golf course is very enjoyable to play, as she teaches and plays lots of golf with the members.
Opened in 1931 the course and club is often described as one of the NYC Metropolitan Area’s “hidden gems”, having hosted many championships including most recently the LPGA Cognizant Founder’s Cup in 2021 featuring most of the top Lady Professional golfers in the World including the Irish touring professional ladies.
Supporting Motor Neurone awareness:
Fifty five teams of four played in Monday’s event at Ennis Golf Club to raise funds for Motor neurone awareness.
The winners with 95 points were T J Scanlon, David Cassidy, Lenny Coote and Sam Doyle. They had three to spare over Michael O’Reilly, Tony Lalor, Jack Joyce and Eamonn Corry.
In third place with 91 points were Michael Sullivan, Pat P McInerney, Flan Glynn, and Pat Lorigan. Followed by Patrick Murphy, Ronnie Guinnane, Tom Saunders, and Frank Gormly with 90 points while fifth spot was filled by Michael Considine, Seán O Gorman, Michael Butler and Tom Woulfe, also with 90 points. The winners of the nearest the pin prizes were Chris McGrath (4th), David Considine (15th), and Jim Horgan (16th)
East Clare Golf Club:
Ann Harte with 39 points won the 18 hole ladies stableford competition at East Clare. She had a point to spare over Celia Moloney with Siobhan Shanahan winning the gross with 20 points.
In the Coronation Foursomes qualifier the winners were Rachel Whelan and Marie Donnellan with 41points.
The ladies club Wednesday competition was won by Mary Bugler, Nancy Starr and Margaret Egan from Joan Kinsella, Kay Grimes and Mary Stillman.
Vincent Hayes with 42 points was the winner of the men’s open day on Monday from Brian O Connell with 41 points.
Last week’s senior men’s competition was won by Nick Ryan, Michael Moloney and Jim Bradley from Martin McKeogh, M.J. Moloney and J.J. Bradley with third spot filled by Danny Minogue, Michael Heffernan and J.J. Barton.
The Friday evening scramble winners were Mary Jo. Minogue, Geraldine McNamara and Jimmy Nagle from Carmel Lenihan, Jim Greene and Seamus Mason with third spot filled by Marie Minogue, Kathleen O’Brien and John Duffy.
The play in pink, an open team of three competition, will be on Wednesday next, The men’s open day continues on Thursdays while the mixed scramble continues on Friday evenings at 5.45p.m.
Woodstock Golf Club:
Teams representing Woodstock will be busy over the coming weeks. The Pierce Purcell team will play Spanish Point at Spanish Point on this Sunday at 2.30p.m. On Tuesday next (June 27) the Irish boys inter club competition takes place at Ballyneety at 2p.m. when Woodstock will be competing.
On Thursday next, June 29 Woodstock will travel to play Ballybunion in the JB Carr competition while on Saturday July 1 the junior cup team will take on Limerick at Tralee at 7.55am. A week later (July 8), at Kilrush will also be the venue for the senior cup competition against Kilrush.
In the Barton shield Woodstock will take on Glengariff or Ballyneety at Castletroy on Saturday July 15 at 9.30am. On the same day the Jimmy Bruen team will play Dooks at Woodstock at 3p.m.
President Ollie McNamara’s prize was played for last weekend when Patsy Nugent (32) won the ladies section with 43 points. She was two ahead of Anne Kilker (44) with Mary Morgan (38) in third spot, also with 41 points. The nines were won by Mary Howard (29) with 21 points and Louise Guilfoyle (54) with 20 points. Helen O’Neill (54) won the 9 hole competition with 24 points.
In the men’s section the winner was John Clune (10) with 63 from Frank McEnery (21), also with 63. Adrian Kearney (13) was third and he also had a 63 with Stephen Clancy (19) in fourth spot with 66.
Brian Gilligan (1) won the gross with 71 while the category winners were Ray Casey (6) with 66, Tyrone Kearse (11) with 66 and Vincent O’Grady (3) with 66.
The past president’s prize was won by Jimmie Kelly (21) with 71 while the senior’s section was won by John McGrath (14) with 67. The June medal will be played for this weekend.
Kilrush Golf Club:
The men’s competition at Kilrush last weekend was for the Young trophy and it was won by Patrick O’Dea (21) with 60.
He had three to spare over Tom G Smyth senior (22) and he was followed by Nevan Prendeville (12) with 64 and Thomas Downes (10) with 64. Jim Young Senior (10) won the gross with 73.
The category winners were Greg Young (7) with 68, Patrick Coleman (16) with 67 and Aeneas O’Connor (22 with) 69 while the nines were won by Cian O’Mahony (17) with 31 and Pat Murtagh (18) with 34.
In the ladies competition, sponsored by Bowman’s Lane restaurant the winner was Celia O’Grady (31) with 46 points from Bernie Tubridy (48) with 43 points. In third spot with 38 points was Geraldine Burke (16) followed by Mary Downes (33), also with 38 points.
The category winners were Margaret Hehir (20) with 36 points, Edel Crowley (28) with 37 points and Martina Fox (37) with 36 points while the 12 hole winner was
Mary Moody with 21 points.
Ennis Golf Club:
Ennis ladies hosted an open day team of three modified scramble last week when the winners were Mary McMahon (20) Sinead Hegarty (17) and Carola Wixted (31) with 96 points.
They had one to spare over Jean Moloney (24) Maura Ryan (30) and Susanne Deane (15) who were followed by Maureen Moloney (36) Anne Kelly (24) and Patricia O’Reilly (33) with 93 points.
In the 9 hole stableford competition the overall winner was Ann Kelly (13) with 20 points.
Ann Casey (14) won division 1 with 17 point, Nuala D’Auria (18) won division 2 with a similar score and Patricia O’Reilly (19) won category 3 with 19 points.
The senior scratch cup was played for at Ennis last Sunday and resulted in victory for Lahinch member, Stephen Loftus with 68. He had four to spare over another Lahinch member, Peter Hennessy with T.J.Ford from Co Sligo golf club a further three back in third spot. Michael Murphy from Castletroy won the nett category with 72.
The junior scratch cup was also played for and resulted in victory for Joseph Moran with 74 from Noel Whelan with 76 with Eoin Drew from Lahinch, also with 76, in third spot. Robert Loftus (9) won the nett with 70.
T
he men’s team of four competition on Saturday was won by Desmond Leahy (32), Neil Cremin (23), John Gaffney (28) and Tommy Heath (25) with 94 points.
Scott Dillon (16) from Bearna golf club won the Friday open singles with 39 points from Darren McGill (12) with 38 points with third spot filled by David Cassidy (32) who also had 32 points. Derek Healy and Della burns won the captains’ mixed foursomes with 28 points.
The Ennis seniors played for the Pat McGuire memorial cuip on Thursday whe John Shannon (34) won the 18 hole singles stableford outing with 43 points, He had one to spare over Denis Cahill (29) with Kevin O’Connor (20) third on 40, Tom Woulfe (19) fourth on 39 and Johnny Kearse (12) fifth, also with 39. They were followed by Sean Kitson (22) with 39, Pat P McInerney (20) with 39, Tommy Heath (28) with 38, James Corcoran (13) with 38 and Michael Irwin (27) with 38.
Jim Hennessy (20) won the 9 hole singles with 21 points from Frank Sheedy (10) with 20 and Michael Carmody (8) with 18.
The winners of the Tuesday fourball were Senan Ryan and Joseph O’Brien with 40 points followed by Tony Lawlor and Andrew McGloin with 37 with third spot filled by Declan Hanley and Fintan McEvoy with 36, one ahead of Paul Mockler and Sean Daly. Fifth spot was filled by Damon Murphy and Tom Woulfe followed by Peter Quinn and Michael Ball and both pairings also had 35 points.
The junior boys competition was won by Gearoid Barry (28) with 46 points
Dromoland Golf Club:
The men’s competition at Dromoland at the weekend was v par and the winner was former Clare hurler and manager Tony Kelly with an impressive 7 up.
He finished one ahead of Jason Mulderrig with Daniel Lennon one further back on 5 up followed by another former Clare hurler Gerry McInerney, also with 5 up. Jason O’Leary won the gross with 2 up.
Last week’s men’s 9 hole competition was won by Neil Slattery with 22 points from Conor McInerney with 20 with third spot filled by Darragh McCoy with 19.
Gort Golf Club:
Jerry Leahy (14) was the winner of the men’s 18 hole singles stableford competition at Gort at the weekend with 42 points.
Category 1 was won by Noel O Shaughnessy (9) with 41 points, category 2 by John Collins (19) with 38 points while category 3 was won by Kieran Reddy (22) with 42 points, Tony Finnegan (2) won the gross with 33 points.
The Friday June open 18 hole singles stableford was won by John O Connor (29) with 41 points while the gross was won by Ronan Molloy (6) East Clare with 25 points.
Maura Hanrahan (16) was the winner of category 1 in the ladies singles competition last week with 38 points. Anne Kerins (21) won category 2 with 34 points and sinead O’Connor |(30) won category 3 with 40 points.
The revious week’s singles winner was Teresa Kavanagh (34) with 44 points while the 9 hole competition was won by Angela Fahy (27) with 13 points.
Sixmilebridge Golf Society:
Eric Purcell top scored in Saturday’s outing to Nenagh for members of the Sixmilebridge Golf Society and his reward was to claim captain Adam Merriman’s prize.
He beat off stiff competition to win the society’s first major of the season with second place going to Mikey Maxwell with John Nihill third and Bobby Deegan fourth. The nines were won by Eamonn Healy and Ian Mulready.
It was a family affair as regards the guest’s prize with the captain’s grandfather, PJ Phelan returning the winning card. The captain himself didn’t leave empty handed, winning the prize for the longest drive.
Fanny O’Deas society:
Kilrush Golf Club was the venue on Saturday for the annual Paddy Carmody memorial golf outing for members of the Fanny O’Deas golf society. Another big turnout highlighted the esteem in which Paddy was held.
Terence O’Shea retained the claret jug with an impressive 45 points to win by two from Alan Pyne with Kevin Clohessy, also with 43 points, in third spot followed by Declan Kelly with 42 and Tim Shanahan with 41.
Declan Conway won the long drive, Leroy Crowe was nearest the pin and the 2022 player of the year award went to Johnny Leahy.
The society’s next outing will be for captain Tony McMahon’s prize and this will be played for at Glasson in Westmeath on Saturday July 15.
