James Johnstone’s (27) fantastic return of 45 pts saw him win the first of this years named trophy’s. James brilliant score was built around 7 excellent pars. James finished 2 pts clear of Brian Walsh (19) who took Cl 3 honors with 43 pts. Cl 1 was won by Pat Courtney (8), i am nearly sure Pat clicked a win in this class recently so good early season form. Cl 4 was won by Paddy Nugent (26) who signed for a tidy 38 pts. Great field at the weekend with 130 cards returned. The Gross prize was won By Thomas Byrne with 36 pts, oohh the envy.

The first of the Wednesday Opens was held this week. It was a 3 person Champagne scramble and the winners were Sinead/Jamie Stafford and Liam Dowling with a score of 92 pts. In other news Craddockstown have given Newbridge GC a walkover in the Fred Perry trophy so that means that our next match will now be towards the middle of May.

Lisheen Springs emerged victorious in their 1st round Duggan cup match v Carton House this afternoon. Lisheen, the away team impressively won 2 matches in Headquarters to set up a repeat of last years tie which Newbridge won 3 2. So this sets up nicely for an intriguing battle in which Lisheen will be gunning for payback. Our Duggan cup panel will be finalized by the middle of the coming week with panelists being notified of arrangements shortly after.

Fiachra Mc Manus (20) won this year’s 1st race to the Bridge event with a score 0f 42 pts. Fiachra’s 8 pars being the backbone of his excellent return. Cat 1 was won by Pat Courtney (8) with 37 pts, 78 gross Pat, super scoring. Cat 2 honors were awarded to Andrew Maher (15) for his wining score of 39 pts, very steady performer is our Andrew i reckon he will loose a few this season. Cat 3 was won by Mickal Zabek (18) with 42 pts, Mickal was actually beaten on the countback for the overall. Cat 4 was won by that man again Sean Gaffney (28) with 39 pts, another candidate for loosing a few shots this season.

Great result v Cill Dara in the Leinster 4 ball that vital point away lads well done. Pierce Purcell Panel meeting has been arranged/set by Ossie and Skiner. It will take place on Thursday evening the 4th of April at 7 pm in the clubhouse, all panel members need to attend.

The Fred Perry trophy and Duggan cup, over 55 and 50 respectively will have fixtures in late April. Panel sheets are in the dressing room so if you are interested please get your names down. There is one name on the Fred Perry trophy panel sheet which is shocking for a club like ours. We will of course field a competitive team but means that the management team have to go through the membership lists and start contacting people which tbh is time consuming and a pain. Get your names down people.

Well done to all who braved the elements at the weekend. Liam Murphy (12) came out top of the pile with a magnificent return of 29 pts for the 12 hole comp. Jamie Stafford’s (8) nice romantic walk on Sunday morning seemed to fit seamlessly with the business of traversing 12 holes of Golf in fewer shots than his handicap mmmm might be on to something Jamie 28 pts well done. In 3rd spot we had John M Dempsey (18) on 26 pts. Well done gents and Sinead for marking himselfs card……Oh and well done to our Barton Cup panel who had a notable win away to Esker Hills as part of their continuing preparations for the 1st rd match v last years finalists Baltinglass gc.

The weekends of playing in pretty decent weather came to an end this weekend with extremely difficult conditions at times. Alan Gormley’s (12) 28 pts for the 12 holes was good enough to take first place. In second was Sean Gaffney (28) with 27 pts, Sean starting to play well this winter i can see his handicap tumbling come qualifying. In 3rd spot also with 27 pts was James Maloney well done all and fair play for those scores in tough conditions.

This years Duggan Cup (for over 50’s) draw has just been posted on host club Edenderry’s website. Newbridge GC have drawn a bye in the first round and will be at home the winners of Lisheen Springs and Carton House in the 2nd round which is to be played by May 19th. The draw has been especially kind to us this year with us being at home again should we come through the 2nd round.

Eamon Branigan really is a remarkable player, after considerably lowering his handicap to the mid single figure range last year Eamon fired in a score of 22 pts at the weekend singling his intent to keep the downward pressure on his handicap. Brilliant stuff Eamon. Cat 1 was won by Dougie Houlihan with 20 pts. Dougie played an important part in last years run to the Duggan cup semi final partnering John Lonergan in every single round…..which leads me to Cat 2 which was won of the same mark, 20 pts by, guess who, yep John Lonergan, must check with the boys how many matches they actually won in the Duggan cup, “ah boy sure the feckin manager always played us away” Well done John boy might be the only thing Cork win this year. Cat 3, always a dogfight of a category was won by Bernard Moorehouse with a return of 19 pts, well done Bernard. Supervalu vouchers on the way to you all well done again.

So we are in the last week of the league. In the team comp “Under Par” in 2nd spot need to replace a 36 pts with a 40 pts as they are 3 behind “Are We There Yet” who in turn are looking to dump their lowest score of 37 pts.