Cork Golf Club set to host Flogas Irish Boys with 90 rising stars heading to Little Island
John Doyle (Fota Island) who will be competing in the Flogas Irish Boys next week at Cork Golf Club. Picture: Niall O'Shea
Next week is a big week for Cork Golf Club as they host the Flogas Irish Boys for three days. 90 young golfers will head for Little Island with the hope of winning. Golfers from all of Ireland are playing and there are also golfers from Norway, , , USA and the UK in the field.
John Doyle (Fota Island) has had a busy start to the season as he was away with Ireland at the Euro Nations competition in Sotogrande in March and at the Octagonal Tournament in January. Doyle won the last national boys competition to be held in Cork, he won the Irish Under 16 Close in Monkstown in 2023.
Conor Murphy and Darragh Nolan lead the charge from the home club and other local contenders include Sean Reddy and Justin Dennehy (Douglas) and Cian McDonnell (Monkstown). Barry O’Connell (Douglas) is currently third on the waiting list and will be hoping for a place in the field before it starts on Wednesday.
The following week Cork will host the Munster Stroke Play over the May Bank Holiday weekend. The field of 75 golfers will face 36 holes on Saturday with a further two rounds facing the top half of the field on Sunday.
The Munster Stroke Play is the second of three major events in Cork this year, in August they will host the Boys and Girls Home Internationals. Cork’s General Manager Peter Loughnane is looking forward to the three events and is hoping that next week’s winner will be someone we’ll in years to come.
“Shane Lowry won the last time we hosted the Irish Close, Graeme McDowell won the last time we hosted the Irish Youths, so we are hoping for a winner of similar pedigree from the Flogas Irish Boys’ in April,” said Loughnane.
“Our club member John Carroll is also the captain of the Irish U18 squad in 2025 so it’s great validation of the that the club has given Golf Ireland over the years that we have our captain on site while we are hosting this event.”
“The Munster stroke play it is the foremost stroke play event in Munster. Last year Paul Coughlan won it and he went on to have a great year and made the Irish Mid-Am team at the end of the season. The biggest accolade for us is to be trusted with the Home Internationals for boys and girls. We try very hard to encourage junior golf in the club for boys and girls.”
While the Masters generally marks the start of summer golf for many Irish golfers, tomorrow marks the start of the championship season as the West of Ireland gets underway. Tomorrow and Saturday will see two stroke play rounds with the top 64 going through to the matchplay stage. Two rounds on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday will face the finalists as 64 will become two and by Tuesday evening we’ll know the first major winner of 2025.
Jordan Boles, Robert Walsh, Sean Reddy, Dean O’Riordan, Brian Lane, James Walsh, Ryan Lyons, David Howard and Sean Barry are all hoping to be the first Cork winner since Niall Goulding won twice in 1990 and 1991.
Bandon Golf Club have started their weekly open series, the ODM open singles take place every Thursday. Each week, there will be a hole-in-one competition with a prize of €500 and generous prizes, with four qualifiers advancing to the grand final at the end of September. Additionally, the weekly winners will participate in a close-to-the-pin competition on the grand final day. Entry is €30 and bookings can be made online.
Muskerry have launched the 2025 Junior Scratch Trophy with the qualifiers taking place on the 2nd and 3rd of May. The handicap range is 2.5 to 10.5 and the top 64 qualifiers will go forward to the matchplay phase at the end of May.
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