Douglas Golf Club do the double in AIG Senior Cup

Once again Douglas Golf Club did the double last weekend. 

They won the AIG Senior Cup in Women’s and Men’s in Kinsale Golf Club. 

The Farrangalway course was busy with 85 individual matches taking place over the weekend.

It was an inter-club double for the men as the previous week they won the AIG Barton Shield in Tipperary. 

After waiting over 30 years for a Senior Cup or Barton Shield pennant, Douglas now have won three in just over 12 months.

Douglas men were up against Clonakilty in their first match on Saturday morning, and the team was made up of Wayne O’Callaghan, Jack Murphy, Kyle McCarron, Justin Dennehy and Eoghan Power. 

They came through that match to face Muskerry on Saturday afternoon.

For their second match, they had Barry O’Connell and Peter O’Keeffe in the team to strengthen their challenge, they overcame Muskerry winning the first three matches. 

Douglas returned on Sunday morning to face a strong Fota Island side. 

They met Fota the previous week in the AIG Barton Shield final which Douglas won, and the city side prevailed again.

Peter O’Keeffe was up against Morgan Cain in the first match and despite Cain taking a lead of three holes by the turn, O’Keeffe cut the deficit and won on the 18th. 

Kyle McCarron followed that with a win over Greg O’Mahony to add a second win for Douglas, and the match was settled when Jack Murphy beat his namesake. 

That meant that the matches between Justin Dennehy and Sean Barry, and Barry O’Connell and Jason Law were called in.

On the other side of the draw, Cork Golf Club were making progress by beating Thurles on Saturday and Tramore on Sunday morning.

Wayne O’Callaghan came back into the team for the final, taking the place of Justin Dennehy. He was up against Cork’s Paddy Quill with the match going all the way to the 18th where O’Callaghan won the hole to take it to the 19th.

By that stage Peter O’Keeffe in match two was after wrapping up his game against Gary O’Flaherty. Kyle McCarron added a second point for Douglas when he beat Jonathan O’Sullivan on the 16th.

Cork led in the fourth match with Brian Kelleher two up on Jack Murphy. Barry O’Connell was leading Barry Anderson in the last match. 

O’Connell won the 14th to pile pressure on Cork, and when Anderson lost his ball long on the par three 15th the contest was over.

Sunday morning the semi-finals of the AIG Women’s Senior Cup took place. In the first match Douglas faced Fota Island with Douglas getting the win when Shannon Burke, Clodagh Coughlan and Aoife NiThuama put three wins on the board. 

Mary Dowling and Siobhan O’Flaherty won their matches for Fota Island

In the other match, Cork took on Lee Valley with Cork coming out on top in an impressive win. 

Michelle Tobin, Claire Coughlan Ryan and Roisin Connolly all won for Cork and both Paula Walsh and Emily Walsh were leading when they were called in.

That led to another Cork-Douglas final, and the reigning champions took an early lead. Karen O’Neill put the first point up for Douglas when she beat Ailish Thompson on the 14th. 

Despite the early win, Cork rallied with the next two matches going to the 18th. Claire Coughlan had a two up lead on Shannon Burke on the 16th, but Burke won the next hole to narrow the lead. 

She couldn’t win the next to go all square and Claire Coughlan levelled the match when she won on the 18th.

Clodagh Coughlan and Paula Walsh were having a great match and Coughlan won for Douglas thanks to a great long distance putt on the 18th. While the score was 2-2 and the match was still alive, Douglas had the lead in the two matches that were left on the course. 

In the end, it was Aoife NiThuama who took the winning point, beating Roisin Connolly on the 17th green in a close match.

Both Douglas teams will be looking forward to the long trip to Belfast in late August. 

Shandon Park is the host venue for the AIG Inter-Club finals and Douglas will be hoping to match their achievement of 2025 when they won national honours in both events.

This Sunday Youghal Golf Club will host the AIG Jimmy Bruen Shield. Kinsale, Cobh, Clonakilty, Bandon, Mahon, Cork, East Cork and Bantry Bay are all in action in the last 16 matches, and a second round of matches will take place on Sunday afternoon.