Connacht Tribune
Rinville welcomes cream of young golfing talent from Ireland and US
Golf fans in the West are in for a major treat next month when an Augusta Masters champion takes to the fairways of one of Galway’s top courses in a match against some of the best amateur golfers from Ireland.
Stewart Hagestad, who finished as the champion amateur golfer in this month’s Masters – and finished in a tie for 36th overall – is part of the Metropolitan Golf Association team that will be competing for the 14th edition of the Carey Cup at the Galway Bay Golf Resort in Rinville, Oranmore, on Wednesday, May 17, and Thursday, May 18.
The Carey Cup is a biennial tournament played between teams of six amateur golfers representing the Golfing Union of Ireland and the MGA, which is based in the New York area, and Hagestad (26) is the marquee name from this year’s team line-ups, which were confirmed at Galway Bay on Tuesday.
Speaking at the launch, the Chief Executive of the GUI, Pat Finn, explained that it was the love for the West of Ireland of an Irish-American man heavily involved with the tournament that will see it staged in Galway for the first time next month.
“The last time the event was played was in 2015 at Metedeconk National in the US, the 25th anniversary of the first staging of the event which was also at Metedeconk, and there was a man who was involved in 2015 who was involved in the first staging of the match.
“Chauncey Durkin is a New York-based Irish American lawyer, and he just loves the west of Ireland, he has an affinity for the west of Ireland. He supported the match in the US, along with his friends, and there was a request from that Irish American community that supported the match that the event be staged in the West of Ireland in 2017.
“We looked at a number of options and chose Galway Bay as the one we wanted to go for: its proximity to Galway City, the quality of the facility, it has staged top championships in the past, and also the fact the GUI has never held a national event here also came into our thinking,” Mr Finn explained.
A group of around 60 people will travel over from the US for the tournament, including Mr Durkin and representatives of the Irish-American community, who will play in a special AM/Am on Tuesday, May 16, before the action gets underway on the Monday.
Both the US team and Irish teams are playing in the Irish Amateur Open in Royal County Down the previous week, and the US team will also play Lahinch on Monday, as well as the AM/AM on the Tuesday, before the competition starts on the Wednesday.
“We’d encourage anyone with an interest in golf to come out and watch. It is the closest people will get to see this kind of quality golf, there are no spectator ropes, and there is no admission charge so anyone and everyone is welcome to come along,” said Ronan Killeen, the Managing Director of Galway Bay Golf Resort.
“We had a tournament here in 1999 on the European Tour, the West of Ireland Golf Classic, which Constantino Rocco won to seal his place on the Ryder Cup. The late Christy O’Connor Junior held a charity AM/AM here in July 2015, and that was the start of the profile returning to where we’d like to be.
“It will be huge for the region down the line, it will raise the profile not only of Galway Bay Golf Resort, but of Galway and the West of Ireland,” Mr Killeen said.
The MGA has named a strong team as it bids to win back the trophy, having been beaten 8-4 by the GUI team at the Metedeconk National in 2015. Hagestad is joined on the MGA team by Tyler Cline (23), the 2016 MGA Player of the Year; the 2015 and 2016 MGA Mid-Am champion, Trevor Randolph (44); and Darin Goldstein (35), the 2016 LIGA Amateur Champion. The team is completed by Ethan Ng (17) and Brian Komline (43), who will be making his seventh MGA International appearance.
However, it trails the GUI on the honours list, having captured the trophy four times, compared to the eight wins by the GUI since it was first played in 1990. There was one tie, in 2007.
The Irish team features 2016 Irish Amateur Open champion Colm Campbell (29) of Warrenpoint in Down; Irish Amateur Close champion 2016 Alex Gleeson (23) of Castle GC in Dublin; 2014 Junior Open Champion Kevin Le Blanc (19) from The Island GC in Dublin; and the Naas duo of Conor O’Rourke (26), who won the St Andrew’s Links Trophy in 2016, and Jonathan Yates (23), who won both the West of Ireland Championship and the Midlands Scratch Cup in 2015.
The sixth member of the team is Mark Power (16) from Kilkenny GC, who was the Irish U-18 Boys champion in 2016 and is tipped as one of the hottest prospects in Irish golf.
He will hope to follow in the footsteps of some other famous Irish golfers who have featured in previous Carey Cup encounters: both Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley played in the inaugural tournament in 1990, while Shane Lowry and Paul Dunne have also featured in the Irish side over the years.
The competition will see all six players play Foursomes on Wednesday morning (tee 8am-9am) and Fourballs in the afternoon (12.30pm-2pm); while on Thursday, the singles begins at 8am. There is plenty of parking on site, but people are advised to arrive early on both days.
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
Galway 3-18
Cork 1-10
NEW setting; new opposition; new challenge. It made no difference to the Galway minor hurlers as they chalked up a remarkable sixth consecutive double digits championship victory at Semple Stadium on Saturday.
The final scoreline in Thurles may have been a little harsh on Cork, but there was no doubting Galway’s overall superiority in setting up only a second-ever All-Ireland showdown against Clare at the same venue on Sunday week.
Having claimed an historic Leinster title the previous weekend, Galway took a while to get going against the Rebels and also endured their first period in a match in which they were heavily outscored, but still the boys in maroon roll on.
Beating a decent Cork outfit by 14 points sums up how formidable Galway are. No team has managed to lay a glove on them so far, and though Clare might ask them questions other challengers haven’t, they are going to have to find significant improvement on their semi-final win over 14-man Kilkenny to pull off a final upset.
Galway just aren’t winning their matches; they are overpowering the teams which have stood in their way. Their level of consistency is admirable for young players starting off on the inter-county journey, while the team’s temperament appears to be bombproof, no matter what is thrown at them.
Having romped through Leinster, Galway should have been a bit rattled by being only level (0-4 each) after 20 minutes and being a little fortunate not to have been behind; or when Cork stormed out of the blocks at the start of the second half by hitting 1-4 to just a solitary point in reply, but there was never any trace of panic in their ranks.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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GARDAÍ and the IFA have issued a joint appeal to all road users to take extra care as the silage season gets under way across the country.
Silage harvesting started in many parts of Galway last week – and over the coming month, the sight of tractors and trailers on rural roads will be getting far more frequent.
Inspector Conor Madden, who is in charge of Galway Roads Policing, told the Farming Tribune that a bit of extra care and common-sense from all road users would go a long way towards preventing serious collisions on roads this summer.
“One thing I would ask farmers and contractors to consider is to try and get more experienced drivers working for them.
“Tractors have got faster and bigger – and they are also towing heavy loads of silage – so care and experience are a great help in terms of accident prevention,” Inspector Madden told the Farming Tribune.
He said that tractor drivers should always be aware of traffic building up behind them and to pull in and let these vehicles pass, where it was safe to do so.
“By the same token, other road users should always exercise extra care; drive that bit slower; and ‘pull in’ that bit more, when meeting tractors and heavy machinery.
“We all want to see everyone enjoying a safe summer on our roads – that extra bit of care, and consideration for other roads users can make a huge difference,” said Conor Madden.
He also advised motorists and tractor drivers to be acutely aware of pedestrians and cyclists on the roads during the summer season when more people would be out walking and cycling on the roads.
The IFA has also joined in on the road safety appeal with Galway IFA Farm Family and Social Affairs Chair Teresa Roche asking all road users to exercise that extra bit of care and caution.
“We are renewing our annual appeal for motorists to be on the look out for tractors, trailers and other agricultural machinery exiting from fields and farmyards,” she said.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
