Our President John F Curtin weekly Morning Mass paid off last week with the beautiful sunshine and blue skies overlooking the Lakewood Pitch & Putt Course for the annual President’s Prize Competition. There was a great turnout with close on 160 cards played which demonstrates the level of esteem that John has from the Club Members. The Beautiful Prize of a Silver Plated Duck Wine Decanter mounted on a Silver Tray and the Newbridge Glass Clock for the Winner inspired some people to keep trying to get a better score but at the end of the day the prize went to Alan Kenneally with a magnificent score of 18 up. The Championship Course was in play for this prestigious competition and the playing was extremely hard. The Greens were cut to perfection and extremely fast while the Fairways and the Green surrounds were in magnificent condition. Darren O’Leary took the overall gross while John Healy was the winner of the Gents Gross with Colm Healy taking the Gents Nett and Niall Enright the winner of the second nett. Pat Conway took the Ladies nett with Valerie O’Leary taking the Ladies gross and Ladies Captain, Deirdre O’Sullivan the second nett winner. John put up a prize for the best back 18 for Gents and also for the Ladies with Betty White and Mick O’Leary the winners. The Sunday evening Fourball before the Prizegiving was well attended and it was only fitting that the man himself, Gentleman John was ushered into the Winners enclosure taking the nett with 42 ably assisted by his younger sibling PJ Curtin. Valerie O’Leary and Noel Mac were the gross winners while the winner of the Presidents Prize, Alan Kenneally had to settle for second nett partnered by Tim Murphy. JP Murphy aka The Course Specialist took second Gross with John Ahern and everyone else went home with happy memories. The Ladies outshone themselves with the lovely selection of finger food and cakes of all descriptions including the beautiful sponge of fresh fruit and cream made by John himself. Frank Riordan thanked Ballincollig Credit Union for their very generous sponsorship towards the Overall Gross and Category Prizes and said it was lovely to see a return to a bit of normality as it was the first club function since the start of the pandemic. Billy Fitton, Competition Secretary said he was in no hurry to check another Bogey Competition as the complexities are painfully slow. Normal Fourballs next weekend, Course Open to Green Fees and New Members are most welcome. Pat O’Keeffe, Club Captain has called a workday next Saturday for the needle thinning subject to weather conditions and all able bodies members are asked to support.
