TheShortGame: The 112th annual general meeting of the Irish Ladies Golfing Union took place on Saturday at Westmanstown Sports Centre, and it saw some ground-breaking rule changes in that members were asked to vote on a single affiliation fee.
In past years any woman who was a member of more than one club had to pay an affiliation fee for each club. However, now woman members who are in more than one club will just have to pay a single affiliation fee of €25.
Saturday's agm ran smoothly and all rule changes up for discussion were passed. Among the other decisions made was the amalgamation of senior and junior selection committees.
Meanwhile, Limerick's Marion Collins replaced outgoing honorary treasurer Nora Murphy, while council members Rhona Brennan (Southern), Pat Farrell (Western), Pat Lowe (Northern), Maura Sweeney (Eastern) and Ann Popplewell (LGU delegate) were replaced by Máire McMahon, Maura Joyce, Roma English, Nicky Robinson and Brigid McCaw respectively, having completed their three-year term.
Ryder Cup at Golf Show
Organisers of the Golf Show - Golf Digest Ireland and Portside Media - will have the Ryder Cup on display at the RDS, Ballsbridge, Dublin, on St Patrick's weekend.
As excitement surrounding the Ryder Cup grows, its presentation at the show will mark an early-season start to this great event.
Building on the Ryder Cup theme, the Golf Show will also have a special prize for a lucky visitor to the event. He or she will take home two corporate Ryder Cup packages, including accommodation, transfers and tickets for each day including the opening ceremony.
Special facilities at the show will be provided for junior golf with lots of interactive golf products, from putting greens to chipping areas, to interactive computer games. There will be something for children of all ages to enjoy.
Apart from the Ryder Cup tickets, visitors to the show will have the opportunity to win thousands of euros worth of equipment and golf holidays.
The Golf Show takes place at the RDS, Ballsbridge, Dublin, from Thursday, March 16th through to Sunday, March 19th.
O'Halloran's sure club
David O'Halloran, head of sales at Coyle Hamilton, Willis Ltd, Golfsure (who insure most Irish golfers), has one special club in his bag. David, a member of the Royal Dublin GC, had a hole in one recently at the fourth hole at his home club using a five-iron. Nothing special, you may say, in this, except that he holed out with the same club at the K Club's 12th hole back in October. And it also goes to prove the more you practice the better you get, as O'Halloran hit the five-iron 157 metres at Royal Dublin while at the K Club that ball travelled just 130 metres. The club, however, is not for sale.
Hermitage news
Hermitage Ladies Scratch Cup will have a new sponsor for the May 7th event. McLoughlin's, wholesale distributors of gardening DIY hardware and housewares, will sponsor the 35th edition of the event. Kiaran and Pádraig McLoughlin said they were delighted to be associated with such a prestigious tournament.
The scratch cup continues to go from strength to strength, attracting entries from the top golfers in Ireland. Last year nearly 100 competitors with handicaps of 12 and under entered the 36-hole event which also counts for the ILGU Order of Merit points.
After back-to-back wins, Jenny Gannon will be keen to be the first to achieve the three-in-a-row. Other dual winners include Mary McKenna, Lillian Behan and Eileen Rose McDaid.
Entry forms are available from Hermitage Golf Club and shortly on their web site, www.hermitagegolf.ie
Tighe in ace challenge
Last week we gave John Flavin credit for the first hole in one of the 2006 season. However, competition has come from Ciarán Tighe, who holed out at the third hole at Faithlegg GC on New Year's Day after teeing-off at noon.
Tighe, who returned a 75 gross on the day, plays off a nine-handicap at Castlewarden, as does his father, Brian, and brother Eoin. Dad is the only one yet to achieve that elusive hole-in-one.
McIlroy at Faldo event
Rory McIlroy (Holywood, Co Down), the Irish Close and West of Ireland champion of last year, is the only Irish player in the squad of 10 teenagers from Britain and Ireland invited to participate in this week's Nick Faldo International Series Trophy tournament in Hong Kong. The tournament is over 36 holes, tomorrow and Thursday, with the winner taking on Faldo in a "champions' shoot-out" on the Friday.
Apart from the chance to meet and compete with their international contemporaries, the lucky invitees will also attend off-course activities including seminars with Faldo, plus fitness and rules workshops. Faldo has broadened the field this year to include competitors from India, Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei, Singapore, Malaysia, Germany, South Africa, the Philippines and the United Arab Emirates.
Eleven Irish on R&A list
Eleven Irish players are included in the R&A's training panel list of 54 bursars who will receive awards ranging from €730 to €4,400 in the current academic year.
This figure represents an increase of over 30 per cent in the number of individual bursars, and breaks new ground with the inclusion of Helena Arnadottir, a student at the University of Iceland.
Walker Cup player Richie Ramsay is a bursar at Stirling, one of 11 universities in receipt of annual grant funding towards their golf programmes, and the others are: Birmingham, Dublin, Exeter, Glasgow, Heriot-Watt, Loughborough, Northumbria, St Andrews, Strathclyde and Ulster. The R&A Foundation's total annual spend on student golf is currently over 365,000.
The 11 Irish are: James Barton (UCG), Clancy Bowe (Waterford IT), Mark Campbell (UCD), Shane Lowry (Athlone IT), Alex McCoy (UUJ), Brian O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire College), Paul O'Hanlon (NUI), Gillian O'Leary (UCC), Sinead O'Sullivan (UCD), Catherine Tucker (UL), Simon Ward (UUJ).
Hussey on a roll
You may remember last week we highlighted the achievement of Therese Hussey, a member of Kilternan GC who began 2006 with a hole in one on her way to victory. Well, she was again in the winners' circle last Sunday week. However, she just missed out on making it back-to-back victories when she had to settle for runner-up spot with her score of 23 points being three shy of Mary Cooney (26) who had 26 points.
