Aaron Olden wins Muskerry battle to claim Junior Scratch Trophy

18 year-old Aaron Olden is the winner of the 2024 Ryans SuperValu Junior Scratch Matchplay. 

The Fota Island member won six consecutive matches in Muskerry from Friday to Sunday to become the 55th winner of the famous tournament which dates back to 1970. 

The Carrigtwohill native came through the qualifier and was hopeful that some good golf would follow.

“I was in good form coming into it, I had a good few low rounds in Muskerry. In the Munster Boys I shot level par and I had a few good scores at home coming into it,” said Aaron. 

“It was a great experience and I was relieved. It was a tough match against Adam and I very thankful to my caddie Donal Cronin who helped me through every shot. 

"I have to thank Brian Kelleher, Nigel Doyle and all the Fota crowd for supporting me, it was great to see it.”

Although he’s only 18, he has plenty of matchplay experience with Fota in Junior Cup, Bruen and also with Christians in the schools competitions, and that showed through over the three days. 

The matchplay format is unique at junior cup level and although Older had youth on his side, he still found the format a challenge.

“I thought I’d suffer towards the end of the competition but thankfully I got the job done. I was exhausted, I had a practice round in Ballybunion on Monday and nine holes was enough for me.”

Aaron appreciated the support that followed him, including his parents Matt and Carmel and his brother Cian. 

There was a large presence from Fota for the semi-final and their numbers grew through the day as competition came to a close.

Normally, held over the Easter bank holiday weekend, Muskerry made the decision to defer the qualifier due to challenging weather conditions in the spring. 

Well over 200 golfers contested the qualifier in July with the top 64 making it onto Friday’s start list of the top 64. 

It was an early start on Friday, and for the eventual finalists, they would need to win five matches to make it through to Sunday afternoon’s final. After Saturday’s quarter-final there were just four golfers left.

In the first semi final on Sunday, two Fota members faced off in what was dubbed the battle of Carrigtwohill. 

Friends Oscar Murphy and Aaron Olden were up against each other, with Olden winning on the 14th. 

In the other match it was al all Muskerry contest where Adam Ahern got the better of Paul McCarthy.

Arron got off to a great start and found himself three up through eight holes as he headed to the top of the course for the final time.

Ahern won nine and ten to reduce Olden’s lead to just one hole. 

The next three holes were halved in pars and the 14th was halved in birdies. Crucially Aaran birdied the par three 15th to extend his lead to two holes with just three to play. 

But the match was far from over, and when Ahern birdied the 16th the lead was back to one.

When the 17th was halved it meant that the Fota Island member needed just a half to secure the win. 

Olden found himself short sided on the front right of the final green but a deft touch saw him get up and down to half the hole and claim the win.

It was a quality performance, where Olden went two under par in the final six holes in his sixth round in three days. 

It was a battle of attrition over the six rounds, on Saturday morning it took Olden was taken to the 20th before beating clubmate Daniel Devlin, and his quarter-final match went all the way to the 18th.

Fota Island have tasted quite a bit of success in Muskerry, in the past eight years they have had four winners. 

Noel McGee won in 2017, followed by David Howard in 2019. That year David beat his dad John (also a Fota member) in the final. Thomas Hughes won in 2022 and Olden, who is the one of the youngest winners in a decade.

Ryan’s SuperValu Jason O’Callaghan was not just there representing the sponsor, the Muskerry member also qualified in the top 64. 

O’Callaghan, who also represented Ireland at the European Masters basketball tournament in Italy this year, beat Colin Hussy and John Howard on Saturday but he lost out to semi-finalist Adam Ahern in Saturday’s round of 16 match.

He was back in Muskerry on Sunday to watch the action, this was Ryan’s fourth year sponsoring the event. 

Next up for Muskerry is the 36 hole Bruen Youths which takes place on Monday 26th August, details are available from the club.