Kilkenny and Tandragee bid to keep Home Nations Inter-club Championship
Fred Daly Trophy champions Kilkenny Golf Club at the GUI Champions Dinner, Carton House, Maynooth, Co. Kildare. Credit: Matt Browne / SPORTSFILE
Fred Daly holders Kilkenny and Ulster champions Tandragee will be bidding to follow in the footsteps of Mallow and Galway Golf Club by completing a hattrick of Irish wins in the Junior Inter-Club Home International Trophy at Antequera Golf Club in Spain next week.
Kilkenny beat Tandragee in the All Ireland final at Moyola Park last August and after last year’s Home Nations Championship saw Galway follow in the footsteps of Mallow, Irish junior golf will be going for three in a row.
The Irish teams will be competing against the national champions and runners up from England Scotland and Wales and excitement is mounting in both Irish camps as final preparations from the March 7-10 event are in full swing.
In Kilkenny, a series of fund raising activities has while in Co Armagh, Tandragee's squad of William Small, David Cunningham, Jake Rowe, Edward Rowe, Peter Taylor, Cameron Fox, Jordan McKenzie and Lewis Fox is eager to get going.
Jeff Forde, club past captain and deputy team manager who is helping to coordinate the trip to Spain said: “The boys are absolutely excited and are practicing hard to make sure they are fully prepared. The whole club is throwing its support behind the team. There is a lot of interest.”
Fred Daly Ulster Champions Tandragee. Back Row (L-R) Rennell Gale, David Cunningham, Lewis Fox, Ross Taylor, Dympna Keenan (PGA Professional/Junior Convenor), Benjamin Boyd, Edward Rowe, Cameron Fox, Robert Megarity (Club President). Front Row(L-R) Jordan McKenzie, William Small (Junior Captain), Hamilton Loney (Club Captain), Jake Rowe, Peter Taylor.
A series of fund raising activities has also taken place, including the auction of a signed Northern Ireland football shirt from Chris Baird for the Faroe Islands away game during their successful Euro 2016 qualification campaign.
The squad of eight players will be accompanied by club professional Dympna Keenan, team managers, family and supporters.
The Home Nations Inter-club Championship, which is now in its 21st year, will be staged from March 7-10 for Nigel Dolton Trophy.
The Championship has grown into one of the biggest and most prestigious junior team tournaments in the world.
It is the only one in the British Isles and Ireland and is supported by the R&A, the four national golf unions and the Golf Foundation.
More than 1,300 clubs with 650,000 members - over half of the UK’s and Ireland’s clubs - compete each year engaging an estimated 80,000 youngsters.
Sky TV will broadcast highlights from the event later in the year.
Other clubs competing are Hallamshire and Burhill (England); Murrayfield and Uphall (Scotland) and The Vale of Glamorgan and Green Meadow (Wales).