Busy March for golfer John Doyle as he performs well in Spain

John Doyle continued his positive start to the season last week when he was in action in the Spanish Amateur. 

Doyle was the best of the Irish in the Strokeplay qualifier and two rounds of 71 and 70 put him into 11th place in the field of 120 golfers. 

Doyle along with Stuart Grehan were the only two Irish to make the matchplay stage. 

The Fota Island member took the lead in his first round match but ended up losing out to Hugo Mikl from Czechia.

The previous week, John was in the South Carolina for the prestigious Sage Valley Junior Invitational. 

Doyle was in a field of just 36 golfers, and his was one of only nine Europeans to be invited to the competition. 

Doyle would have been hoping to become the second Irish winner, following Tom McKibben who won in 2019. 

The results didn’t go his way however and he finished the 72 hole stroke play event in the middle of the field.

Doyle has had a busy start to the season, in February he also competed in the Portuguese Amateur. 

He has not entered the West of Ireland which starts next week but he may be playing in the Munster Stroke Play in Cork Golf Club in early May where he is the holder. 

Doyle is currently ranked at 307 in the world amateur rankings and is planning to join Louisiana State University in August.

Jack Murphy has also had a busy few weeks in Seattle, playing in four NCAA Pac 12 events in the past five weeks. 

Murphy has seen some mixed performances, but the highlight would have been his -9 score at the Amer Ari invitational. 

Murphy is in action this week in Stanford in California, he has a few weeks off before teeing it up in Passatiempo at the Western Intercollegiate.

Morgan Cain has also been busy in the spring programme for Lincoln Memorial University. 

He has played in Florida, Nevada and Georgia in the recent weeks and is closer to home this week for the Tennessee River Rumble. 

His college have scored a second and third place finish in the most recent tournaments so they will be hoping to continue with a positive finish close to home.

As April approaches, golf courses are getting busier with members and visitors getting out in increasing numbers. 

The Easter weekend will mark the start of open competitions and a start to the season proper.

Mallow have a number of competitions next week over the Easter Weekend. 

On Good Friday they will hold an open fourball (any combination) and they have open singles on the Saturday and Sunday. 

On the bank holiday Monday they have a open three ball better ball team event that is open to ladies and gents. 

Mallow also host an open singles competition on Wednesday’s and Friday’s every week.

Fermoy has an open mixed three person team event on Monday 6th April and their Wednesday open singles competitions also start next month. Mitchelstown are also running an open singles next weekend.

Macroom start their McGuirks open singles next Thursday and the series runs weekly until mid September. 

The Macroom intermediate and minor scratch cups take place on 13th June and the senior and junior scratch cups take place on 19th July.

Douglas have announced the dates for their scratch cups and they kick off with the intermediate scratch cup on 25th April. 

The minor scratch cup takes place on 10th May and the junior cup takes place on 30th May. 

The 36 hole senior scratch cup is scheduled for 27th June and boasts a prize fund of almost €3,000. 

The senior scratch cup is sponsored by Corporate Life. Entries open for all four competitions on 3rd April.

The 36 hole Cork Ladies Scratch Cup takes place on 18th April, entries are now open on the Cork Golf Club website, limited to the lowest 60 handicap indexes.

A week later Lee Valley will hold their 54 hole senior scratch cup. 

The event returns to it’s April date this year after being held in September last year due to the rebuilding of the 2nd green. 

Mahon will host their scratch cups on the 12/13 May and Blarney have their senior scratch cup scheduled for 23rd May.

Entries close next week for the Munster Stroke Play which takes place in Cork Golf Club at the beginning of May. 

The event, which started as the Cork Scratch Cup over 100 years ago will be held over two days, taking in four rounds of stroke play golf.