On Saturday morning the last 42 golfers arrived at 10 am (well nearly everyone did, you know who you are !!!!) at Carrick on Shannon Golf Club for the OBN Series Grand Final. Based upon the prices paid for the players at the auction the night before we were expecting no players to have less than 45 points on the day. Let’s Just say a lot of people should not be left alone on the couch with their phone and their Revolut account. (get your minds out of the gutter) The weather in the morning was excellent, but we did have some rain as the round wore on. To say the course was in excellent condition would be an understatement. We have had 3 weeks of torrential rain and the new drainage investment and equipment at the course have done a fantastic job in keeping the course in amazing shape. You really need to play it to appreciate how good it is.
Everyone tee ’ed off in a shotgun start at 11am in 3 balls based on their qualifying positions.The field included, 7 visitors, 4 Juniors, 4 father and son combinations, a Scottish immigrant, an Irish Immigrant, 4 Brothers and a nephew, 3 Irish water employees and 2 more trying to become Irish water employees, 2 farmers (money money money). 7 retired people another 4 I can’t work out if they are retired or not, 6 business owners, 2 recovered alcoholics, another not recovered yet and only 1 one genuine golfer.
The outright winner of the OBN Series is one of our club Junior golfers and bright talents for the future. Devin Hanley. I played with Devin and he had a great round. He had a poor spell at the turn with 4, sixes in a row but banged in a number of good pars straight after to shoot 40 points. Devin already had 2 bonus points coming into the competition resulting in a winning score of 42 points. Congrats young man and make sure your parents pay you full price for the McNean Restaurant voucher if you’re not going.In second over was another junior Golfer and well known to the title sponsor, Adam O Brien. Like Devin, Adam also has a bright golfing future in the club and has had a good year playing golf. He has a great front 9 but gave some back to the course on his back nine when the rain was coming down. Good man Adam delighted for ya. 3rd overall was a man playing good golf at the club for a long number of year now Sean Bohan. Sean won the Heaven and Hell competition earlier in the series and backed it up with another solid 37 points (+2 that he already had in the bag) Sean Birdied the 1st, the 4th and the 12th during his round. One of his playing partners said Sean was flying and looked like he was going to win outright but he seemed to pull up a bit for some reason. Does anyone know why? The best Stableford round of the day (excluding bonus points) went to Paddy Murray. Paddy scored 39 points on the day with a very steady round including 8 pars. The Elphin Road was very well represented on the day with loads of the Thatch Bars regulars teeing it up. The Gross prize was a very very tight affair, The two favourites (Patrick Martin and David McDermott) for the title were neck and neck and both finished 3 over par. When the forensics were done the Meal Voucher was presented to young Martin. But this Gross prize had another angle to consider. The auction the night before was awarding 25% of the Pot to the best Gross Score. All I can say is the following: If Vladimir Putin accepted a peace deal from Nato as quickly as David Mc Accepted a split pot deal from Patrick Martin then the war in Ukraine would have been one of the shortest wars on record. (ill you all work that one out).
So what happened to the rest of ye. We now know that pressure is not only for tires it’s also for Gerry King, the fact that Helena his wife remortgaged the family home the night before to buy him in the auction did nothing for Gerry’s sleep on Friday night. I also have it from a reliable source that a king family WhatsApp group was set up during the week to blagard Gerry and not help the situation. Hard luck Gerry, it was great to have you with us all season long. Of the lads who started with +3 points Derek Rowley, Frank Mcgrath and Tommy Ahern with an average age of 97 all folded under the pressure of expectation. The only man who started with +3 who accounted for himself well was Coman Neary. His application to Join Carrick Golf Club is in, and we are just calling a few of the references but we should let you in Coman.
The McDermott 2.0’s all struggled, let’s face it they are all very short off the tee so the recent softening of the course didn’t suit them. That said they did put in a strong showing in the Tipsy Tailor that night and all drank off single figures. Damien Quigley played well enough but is still struggling to fit in as a single handicap golfer. Imposter syndrome is getting the better of him. That said, he played a lot better than last year when he crumbled. Callum McGirl had a good round and just didn’t have any bonus points coming into the final. I’m still struggling to believe he won that long drive in the last competition, I guess sometimes genetic talent really does skip a generation. Jim King, our course manager put in a decent showing, capitalising on the shorter first hole with a birdie. (o what your brother would have given for that round) Kevin “I can’t believe everyone else turned up on time” Sheeran had 35 points and isn’t in any of the group pictures. Another name to watch out for going forward is young Mark McShera with 35 points. Mark loves his golf, is super competitive and is already a far superior golfer to his dad Padraig who had 30 points. Andy Connellan continued his fine form this year and was nowhere to be seen at the business end of the table. What was even sweater was the fact his daughter Olivia had paid €81 for him the night before in the auction. Seamus Sheeran had more of a chance winning the pot when he tried to buy Gerry Emmett and Gerry hadn’t even qualified for the final. Paul Reid finished mid-table (similar to where you might expect him to have finished in the presidential race if he manned up and ran) It’s not every day you finish in 8th last place in a competition and walk away with over €3,500 but that’s roughly what Niall Hanley achieved. (OBN Financial Services offer a wide range of investments and
Last year’s champion and this year’s hard working club Captain Hugh Gralton came a cropper this year finishing 5th last. The man who finished in last position with a tally of points that even St Mary’s senior team could beat was our Club Vice Captain Scottish Francis. Not to worry frank you game will only get worse next year when you are Captain. That ends the OBN Series 2025. (Thank God !!!) Deborah, The OBN Team and our family (Adam, Erin and Conor) and I would like to thank you all for your support during the series. We have received many kind words and compliments in conversation, phone messages and written cards. To the Qualifier Sponsors who stood up and gave massively thank you. To the course management, staff and donor the place is the best we have seen in years, and it has brought so much joy to our community. To all the visitors who played in the series this year, ye added a whole new dimension, thanks for playing and we hope to see you all again soon. And finally, the members who came out in droves and played. The qualifiers were consecutively the largest competition held in Carrick on Shannon Golf Club history, not only did ye play once in them ye played 2 and 3 times per competition. It gave us great encouragement as organisers and sponsors to see that level of support! Thanks, and see you all next year!!
Paul
