2015 - #8

The 8th Carne Trophy event took place in St. Helen's Bay on Saturday October 3rd.   This year it was particularly special as one of our founder members, Joe Connolly, had passed away earlier in the year.  To celebrate Joe’s wonderfully positive outlook on life and his love of all sport, everyone made an extra effort to get there, and we had a record 20 people playing this year, with more joining us for dinner later.  We had a couple of firsts, ladies played in the golf, we had a seeded draw for the teams and with young James Burke, a great grandson of Molly’s, playing, there were three generations of her descendants participating.

As a further tribute to Joe, the Carne Trophy, originally put up in memory of Molly, has now also been dedicated to Joe.  His name is now proudly inscribed on the trophy along with his mother-in-law’s.  Both heroes, always missed, never forgotten.

The weather was remarkably kind yet again and the St. Helen’s Bay course was in superb condition.  With 20 playing we were able to put together five teams of four for the now-traditional scramble format.  The draw for the teams was made the previous evening in the Kilrane Inn and it threw up a few interesting teams:

With even numbers on the teams, the regular scramble handicap system was used with each team receiving 1/10th of the combined four handicaps which ranged from 9.0 to 10.9 across the teams.  As it happened, all five teams bettered net par with four teams recording scores in the sixties, the best of which was a 60.7 (one under par gross) from team Carnesore led by previous winner Fergal McGrath.  However, one team came in with a remarkable gross score of 67 which is five under par and a net 58, a new record for the Carne Trophy – Team Clougheast led by Paul Philips (for a 3rd time in succession) and also including previous winners Paddy Burke and Ian McDonald as well as Ian’s son Michael who was making his debut appearance.

Nearest the pin on the 7th was won by Paul Philips, longest drive on the 9th was won by Ian McDonald and nearest the pin on the 11th was won by another debutant, James Burke.  We also had a ‘shot of the day’ award on each team and these were won by Hughie O’Donnell, Guy Wheeler, Marc Farrelly, Ian McDonald and Anne-Marie Ryan respectively.  Golfer of the day was won by Ian McDonald.  The Green Jacket, now going to the ‘family member of the day’ on the winning team following Joe’s suggestion last year, was won by Joe’s great friend, Paddy Burke.

This year the meal and presentations once again took place in the Kilrane Inn, or K1 as some are now calling it, where the ‘golfers’ were joined by Ellie, Mary, Katie, Natalie and Maura.  The gang was so big we had the entire restaurant area to ourselves.  Jim, Mary and their team looked after us superbly and we had a superb meal.  There was a great atmosphere in the K1 as Australia were in the process of knocking England out of the Rugby World Cup.

Following the presentation of prizes, Russell, Ellie and Paddy had a few words to say about the Carne Trophy event and, of course, about Joe.  Some sadness could not be avoided as we all miss him terribly, however the focus was on celebrating Joe’s life and all the good things he stood for.  In particular we remembered Joe’s determination during his treatment to make sure he was well enough to play in last year’s event.  Other departed friends, Gay Reilly and Pat Hennessy were also remembered as was the great Molly herself. The formalities concluded on an upbeat note with Paddy presenting a collection of pictures of Joe in last year’s event to Ellie and everyone agreeing that this was a super event and vowed to participate again in 2016.