This article is from page 75 of the 2009-07-21 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 75 JPG
FOURTEEN players representing Clare clubs will take their chance in the 108th South of Ireland Golf Championship that gets underway in Lahinch on Saturday. The strongest Clare field in the oldest of the provin- cial golf championships in a number of years will be headed by Lahinch’s Patrick Collier,
Meanwhile, Ennis’ Noel Pyne will continue his remarkable associa- tion with the event by competing in his 47th consecutive championship when he goes into action against Doneraile’s Damien Carey on Satur- CR ham enlewenterce
Pyne is one of ten of the Clare con- tingent in action in the first round — the others are Mark Feane (La- hinch), Patrick Sheehy (Lahinch), Cathal O’Connor (Woodstock), Tho- mas Neenan (Lahinch), Padraig Mc- Grath (Dromoland), Ian Morrison (Lahinch), Ed Hickey (Shannon), Ni- all Woods (Dromoland) and Patrick OO liome Re
Collier is one of six former cham- pions in the 192-strong field for the 2009 event — the others are Barry Reddan, Padraig O’Rourke, Simon Ward, Peter Sheehan and defending champion Niall Kearney.
O’Rourke from Kilkenny is a two- time winner, winning the title for the
first time all of 28 years ago when beating John Carr in the final by 2 and |. He followed it up with another win in 1985 when scoring a 3 and 2 win over Ennis’ Pat Lyons who was playing out of the Nenagh club.
Reddan beat Mark Gannon in an all-Co Louth final in 1987 — it went all the way to the 20th before Reddan got the better of his fellow interna- tional and clubmate. Peter Sheehan, who now plays out of Ballybunion was the winner in 1993 when beating Michael O’Kelly on the 19th, while Collier was playing out of Limer- ick when he won the title in 1997 by beating Andrew McCormick of Scrabo on the home hole.
Niall Kearney and Simon Ward are the most recent champions in the field — Ward was 2006 champions thanks to victory over Darren Crowne form Dunmurry by 2 and 1, while Kearney scored a decisive 4 and 3 win over The Curragh’s Paul O’Hanlon in last year’s final.