National Matchplay 2026 stats by John Manning
John Walsh wins the National Matchplay championship for the fourth time, moving him to outright second place on the all-time Roll of Honour behind Ray Murphy.
Walsh moves ahead of Joe Doyle, Sean Harkins and Damien Fleming who have all won three.
John also moves to six National individual titles (Matchplay and Strokeplay combined), to go ahead of Sean Downes and Damien Fleming and move to solo second place on the all-time list.
Walsh won the National Matchplay in Cork for the first time.
He has won the Matchplay (2026) and secured runner-up place in the Strokeplay (1997) on the same course, the first player to achieve this since T.J. O’Riordan, also at Rocklodge in the 1960s.
John’s win means nine consecutive National Gents Matchplay successes for Munster players.
23 of the last 25 National Gents Matchplay champions have represented Munster clubs.
Walsh won the National Matchplay championship having been National Strokeplay runner-up the previous year. The only other players to achieve this are Walsh himself (2014/15), Gus Carolan (1967/68) and T.J. O’Riordan (1964/65).
John Walsh’s record in his ten National Matchplay semi-finals is W7 L3.
Bryan Delaney has now been the losing finalist on three occasions, moving him alongside John Walsh and Chris Scannell in joint second place in that particular category (behind Ray Murphy).
Having lost the 2019 decider at Rocklodge, Delaney has now been runner-up on the same course twice, the first gents player in history to do this.
Delaney has won four of his six National Matchplay semi-finals
John Walsh and Bryan Delaney faced off in the National Matchplay final for the second time. John has won both.
John Cahill contested his fourth National Matchplay semi-final in which his record is W2 L2.
Padraic Sarsfield continued Louth’s proud tradition in the National Gents Matchplay championship, becoming the 14th different player from the Wee County to reach the semi-finals.
Breda White becomes the eleventh multiple winner in National Ladies Matchplay championship history.
Breda contested the final 47 years after her first appearance in the showdown, at the old R.G.S.C. course in 1979.
The National Ladies Matchplay final featured Breda White and Chrissie Sheedy for the second time in five stagings. The score is now 1-1.
Breda and Amy Galvin faced each other in the last four for the third year in a row. It was Breda’s first win in three.
Her overall semi-final record is W5 L8.
Breda White joins Geraldine Ward, Clare Keating, Chrissie Sheedy, Teresa McGuigan and Margaret Hogan as players to have won at least two National Ladies Matchplay championships and at least two National Ladies Strokeplay championships.
Chrissie Sheedy has now been defeated in seven finals to currently jointly hold that unwanted record with Margaret Hogan
After her 2019 final defeat at Rocklodge, Chrissie has now been runner-up twice on the same course, the third player in history to do so. Geraldine Ward (at Seapoint) and Margaret Hogan (at Ierne) are the others.
Chrissie played 2009 champion Tracey Redmond at the semi-final stage for the third time. Chrissie has won all three.
Chrissie’s semi-final record is W14 L4.
Tracey Redmond has won one of her six National Matchplay semi-finals.
Amy Galvin’s semi-final record is W2 L1.
Molly O’Toole is the first player to win the National Girls Matchplay championship and the National Intermediate Matchplay championship crown.
Molly is the second Kildare winner after Bridie Kelly’s 1990 success in Athgarvan.
Molly’s presence in the final ensured that Kildare has been represented in each of the finals in the championship’s relatively short history.
Ailish Sexton is the first player in history to be runner-up in both the National Ladies Intermediate Matchplay and the National Ladies Intermediate Strokeplay.
The undoubted stat of the weekend was that Teresa Venables claimed the National Junior Matchplay title 36 years after she won the very same championship as Teresa Conway at Athgarvan in 1990.
Nuala McNamara is first player ever to collect a silver medal in the National Ladies Junior Matchplay championship and a bronze medal in the National Ladies Junior Strokeplay championship.
Charlotte Blake is the first player in history to reach the National Junior Matchplay semi-finals the year after winning the National Junior Strokeplay championship. She is also the first Kerry player to contest the National Ladies Junior Matchplay semi-finals.
Angela Royer is the second Cork player (after Frances Bohane of Collins in 1990) to be a defeated National Ladies Junior Matchplay semi-finalist.
Ian Leech joins John Looney as a Cork winner of the National Gents Intermediate Matchplay championship. Leech is the first St. Anne’s member to claim the title.
Darren Temple became the fourth Cork registered player to be National Gents Intermediate Matchplay runner-up, in the second all-Cork final in the championship.
Michael Lynch is the second Cork player in history to lose at the semi-final stage of the National Intermediate Matchplay to the eventual champion.
Tony Blake is the second Tralee (and Kerry) player to reach (at least) the National Intermediate Matchplay semi-finals. Jason O’Regan was a finalist in 1991.
For the first time in history, all four National Intermediate Matchplay semi-finalists represented Munster clubs.
Kieran Kenneally is Claycastle’s and Cork’s first-ever winner of the National Gents Junior Matchplay championship.
Aidan O’Rourke is the first reigning Munster Junior Matchplay champion to reach the National Gents Junior Matchplay championship final in the same year (Colin Hennessy was in the 2023 play-off between the provincial champions).
Paul Boreham is the first Bishopstown player (and the third representing a Cork club) to be a defeated National Junior Matchplay championship semi-finalist.
David Harnett reached the National Junior Matchplay semi-finals, the first Kerry player to do so.
In making the National Junior Matchplay semi-finals, David matched his brother Robbie, who reached the same stage of the 2021 National Juvenile Matchplay championship.
For the first time in history, all four National Junior Matchplay semi-finalists represented Munster clubs.
Rocklodge hosted the National Gents Matchplay championships for the eighth time (extending its record as the venue most often used) and the Ladies equivalent for the fourth time (moving beside Ierne, Seapoint and Hillview at the top of that list).
Munster players have won all eight stagings of the main National Gents Matchplay championships at Rocklodge.
Three of the four winners of the main National Ladies Matchplay championships at Rocklodge have represented Munster clubs.
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