The past weekend saw our esteemed President, Gentleman John Curtin present on the course to wish all the competitors well in their endeavour to put in the score that would take the beautiful prize that he put up for one of the major club competitions, the President’s Prize, home and mount it in a place of pride. Contrary to the gloom and doom predicted by Met Eireann the weather in Lakewood was glorious with a slight shower sprinkling the greens last night prior to the presentation. An excellent turnout with some great scoring and worthy winners. The competition concluded with a football and it was only fitting that the man himself was in the prizes, taking second nett with Pat Conway with 44 while John Ahern and Michael Ryan were the gross winners with one under. Josie Twomey and Mark Spillane took the overall nett with 5 under and 36 nett.
The President’s Prize is one of the Major Competitions of the year and there was a great turnout in the Club for the presentation which saw Gretchen Ahern taking 2nd nett on 88 points for the Ladies, Valerie O’Leary on 70 points for Gross and Deirdre O’Sullivan taking the 1st nett with 94 points. The Gents saw Kevin Crowley, fresh back from his debut at National Level, having qualified for the National Junior playoff and thoroughly enjoying the experience taking 2nd Nett with 94 points, Mark Spillane took the 1st gross with 78 points and Michael Ryan with 10 under and 96 points took 1st nett. The overall gross went to Robert Spillane with a great score of 11 under, The overall prize went to Ann Herlihy also back from the Ladies National Junior Strokeplay where she finished Runner-up and now with a magnificent 98 points took home John Curtin’s President Prize for 2023. Ann’s Father Tom was present to accept the prize and read out Ann’s message which thanked John for the beautiful prize and her memories of meeting John on her first day at Lakewood and how honoured and delighted she was to win his prize. The course was in the usual magnificent condition and John had the greens nice and fast to make them more challenging. The Ladies under Pat Conway put up a nice spread for the crowd with a mixture of sweet and savoury treats.
Normal Fourballs next weekend and the course is open to Green Fees.
PhotoL-R Billy Fitton, Competition Secretary, Tom O’Herlihy, Ann O’Herlihy’s Father accepting the prize on her behalf, John Curtin, Club President, Frank Riordan, Club Chair.