Ciaran’s Bright autumn gold

Ciaran’s Bright autumn gold

9 October 2024

I MENTIONED a couple of weeks ago that it probably wouldn’t take Ciaran Mahon too long to return to the Category 1 handicap division at Bright Castle.

After his performance in the Autumn Trophy he’ll likely remain there for a day or two.

Weather conditions were much more favourable for those taking part on the Saturday and it was Ciaran who made the most of them, his highly impressive round of five over par 78 resulting in a 44-points total, which was enough to give him his second victory in three weeks.

Ciaran’s score was made all the more remarkable given he scored a triple bogey eight at his opening hole, but birdies at the fifth and sixth got him back on track and were followed by a pair of birdie twos on the back nine at the 13th and 16th.

Peter Mitchell (42 pts) and Mark Boyd (41 pts) finished second and third respectively, while the handicap category prizes went to Dylan Duffy (38 pts), Thomas Poland (39 pts) and Clive Scoular (38 pts).

A total of nine twos were recorded over the weekend but there was no doubt about which one was the most impressive of them, Francie Brannigan producing an exquisite chip-in at the 16th hole after laying up 65 yards short of the green. 

Ciaran Mahon pocketed two shares of the twos pot, with other shares going to Mark Boyd, Daniel Craig, Paul Brown, Mark Anderson, Colum McNeil and Clive Scoular.

 Last week’s planned greens maintenance has been put back for a week or two and it’s hoped that a decent spell of weather might also delay the introduction of winter rules and mean that weekend competitions will remain as qualifiers for as long as possible.

 I suspect that Sunday’s planned sweepstake was abandoned due to bad weather, (no results at time of writing), but while Saturday’s stableford event did go ahead, all those taking part had to endure tricky conditions brought about by the high winds and it was Joe Kennedy who coped with them the best.

Joe’s 38 points were enough to give him a one-point victory ahead of Brian Smyth in second spot, with Pat Fitzsimons a further point back in third.

The respective handicap division categories were all won with 35 points and went the way of Damien Oakes, Garrett Cullen and Stephen Browne, with Garrett adding extra gloss to his day by recording the only birdie two on the day and pocketing the twos pot.

News that Golf Ireland is to introduce iGolf – an easy-to-use platform that enables you to track your performance and handicap under the World Handicap System without being a member of a golf club – has ignited much debate on the various social media outlets.

Those in favour of the idea are of the opinion that it would help grow the game and with an estimated 300,000 golfers who don’t hold any form of membership but play a full, 18-hole round at least once a year potentially taking it up, that’s a sizeable chunk who may be tempted to fork out £55 to have a handicap and a membership of sorts.

The scheme has also been used England, Scotland, Wales and New Zealand for several years with significant success in encouraging increased participation and ultimately transitioning many independent golfers into club membership.

However, some Irish clubs feel that the iGolf model is not suited to fit the needs of the much more competitive club golf environment in Ireland, despite the possibility of the initiative having similar results here.

Clubs now fear missing out on the opportunity to encourage younger people into golf and embed them into their clubs because they feel it will be easier and cheaper for them to obtain an iGolf handicap rather than paying a club membership subion, despite the various offers that are available for different age categories.

There are also real concerns about how accurate the handicap ratings will be, given that it would appear that it would be pretty easy to obtain an inflated rating via the new system and for iGolf subscribers to rock up to open competitions and mop up the prizes but this story will likely run and run and the proof of the pudding will, as ever, be in the eating and time will ultimately tell how successful the new system is.